Concourse C – Segment B
Presenter 1: Joey Kincer & Emily Kincer & Julie Amburgey
Generation Z: Buddy Benches
For our grant our goal is to focus on training our students on how to become empathetic listeners while also focusing on hands on skills they already possess to be utilized for transitional gain and future careers. The major focus of our project will be the implementation of Buddy Benches in our school. These non-tech zones will be student constructed, worked, and monitored by our Cougar Cares team to encourage school comradery as well empathetic listening. By focusing on these components these benches can become a hub for students to seek out students for help and have a place where a buddy will always be. These components will be tracked and utilized in the students Digital Portfolios as a source of personalized information to be utilized when seeking further trainings as well as employment.
Presenter 2: John Handshoe
Recycle Hazard
Many of our Hazard High School students appear to lack the ability or desire to apply math and science to everyday issues that affect them and their community.  Locally, including at Hazard High School, there is a large quantity of recyclable materials that usually ends up in a landfill.  These products include aluminum, paper, and plastics.  The purpose of Recycling Hazard would be to take the recycling process one step farther by going beyond collecting and turning in these items.  Using simple equipment, we would forge aluminum into various sized ingots for sale where they would bring a higher price.  In addition, polystyrene plastic, commonly seen in the form of Styrofoam would be reduced in volume by several times by a chemical process to form solid masses that could be either disposed of normally or reformed into various items.  The remaining recyclables, other forms of plastic and paper, would be taken to recycling centers as they normally would.
Presenter 3: Avery Gibson & Alyssa Fletcher
KVEC Student Senate
Presenter 4: Misty Ward
The Power of Expressive Painting: Extended Day, the Arts and At-Risk Youth
Students living in poverty, those who have failed one or more classes, those with truancy issues, and those who have multiple discipline referrals lack appropriate coping mechanisms, healthy relationships with school personnel, and the ability to make use of their free time in healthy, productive ways. Eagle Enrichment seeks to assist these students by providing high-quality arts instruction in addition to regular school day instruction. The impact of Arts Instruction on at-risk students has proven to have a positive impact on academic achievement, behavior, and student confidence. Eagle Enrichment personnel will provide painting classes before the regular school day begins to help focus these students on their purpose as learners in our school. Students will complete quarterly reflections as well as achieve documented improvement in their academic achievement, attendance, and behavior.
Presenter 5: Jason Kinner
Digital Reel Archive Conversions
In the Paintsville Independent District, we strive to be on the cutting edge of technology. We feel that a 360 camera would be an incredibly innovative tool to stay on this cutting edge. New students/personnel, Law Enforcement, local Fire Department, as well as many others could benefit from a virtual tour of our buildings. Emergency personnel could use these videos as a means of finding the quickest path to an emergency situation. A new student could use their mobile device to find a classroom if they are unfamiliar with a building. This would greatly reduce the time required by administrators in giving tours of the building and district.
Presenter 6: Stephannie Marsillett
Beyond the Merge- “Merge”ing AR/VR with Literacy Part II
Last year, I combined Augmented and Virtual Realities with Literacy (“MERGE”ing AR/VR with Literacy). I found that these developing technologies really interested the students, so I decided to build upon last year’s project by including the creating aspect of AR and VR in the Literacy classroom. How you might ask? I want students this year to be able to create their own AR/VR content related to literacy. In addition to exposing students to AR/VR, this year’s group will be creating similar content with books of their choice. I will be teaching coding with Tinkercad and CoSpaceEDU. Students will be able to bring objects created to life through Augmented Reality on Merge Cubes, as well as to life through digital 3D printing. Students will create characters, settings, plots, etc. and bring them all to life for other classmates to enjoy. Hopefully, this innovation will be the spark needed to interest and have students picking up books again.
Presenter 7: Amy Newsome
Invention Convention
Little Bit of 21st Century Learning Project Summary Education is a dynamic field in which practitioners must constantly adapt. Rapid advances in technology have created a globalized society that requires higher levels of problem solving skills. Gone are the days of rote memorization and regurgitation (sit and get). Today’s students must be able to go beyond this type of learning and apply their conceptual understanding to solve everyday problems. In my classroom, students are in a transitional period. For the most part, their previous classroom experiences have been teacher-centered. Suddenly, they are expected to take ownership of their learning and apply their knowledge. Of course, the transition from one end of the spectrum to the other doesn’t happen immediately. Herein lies the problem. I must find innovative and engaging methods to teach students a new way to learn. This year, I plan to accomplish this goal by giving students the opportunity to become inventors. In order to successfully complete this endeavor, I will need access to some new resources. My research has lead me to two products made by Little Bits: the STEAM student set and Science Expansion Pack. I plan to use these resources to answer the following research question: Does the use of authentic tasks (inventions to solve everyday problems) in the classroom improve students’ 21st century problem solving skills? In order to measure the success of the Invention Convention, I will administer a pre- and post- assessment. The assessment will focus on 21st century problem solving skills.
Presenter 8: Owsley County CCT
Voice and Vision: We Aren’t Who You Thought
Our short term strategy is to acquire a suite of tools and applications and develop relationships with our city/county governments as well as community members. Our long term plan is to create our own marketing infrastructure using community members and their stories.