Christopher was
born on December 21, 1988 in Rochester, New York.
He is 12 years old and is in the sixth grade at St. Margaret Mary School.
He enjoys listening to Japanense music.
Matthew was born on September 1, 1989
in Rochester, New York.
He is 11 years old and is in the sixth grade at St. Margaret Mary School.
He enjoys being on computers
Michael was born on May 19, 1989 in Rochester,
New York.
He is 11 years old and is in the sixth grade at St. Margaret Mary School.
He enjoys playing video games.
Jordan was born on December 6, 1988 in Rochester,
New York.
He is 12 years old and is in the sixth grade at st. Margaret Mary School.
He enjoys putting together models.
Richard Stephen Harmetz was born on February 9, 1965 in Rochester, New York.
He attended Pardee School, Norwood Middle School, and Eastridge High School.
He has degrees in Computer Science and Education.
He is the author of the Marvin books.
A word from Mr. H. - Team Coach:
When I was first introduced to the idea of the ThinkQuest contest, I must admit, I was a bit apprehensive about committing myself and the resources of the school to such an undertaking. After all, this was merely my first year at the school. I was just getting to know my students and was not sure exactly who was capable of participating, or even willing to do so. Besides, the contest was already well underway before I even received the information sheet.
I decided to run the idea past Christopher,
who was one of the more advanced students I had in web page design. Chris had
done a marvelous job on his in-class web page, and had gone out and purchased
a book on advanced HTML design. Chris was excited about the idea of entering
the contest, so I decided to go ahead and start recruiting the other members
of the group.
Matthew was the second member to join. He actually volunteered before I even
had a chance to ask him. Next came Michael and Jordan.
Before we had even finished assembling the team, Chris had come up with the idea for the web site and was asking me if I thought it could be done. Our first meeting consisted of working out additional ideas and then the real work began...
Each member of the group had an equal share in doing the initial research for the information on the state pages. Then they began to branch off into their own areas. Chris worked on the overall design of the page, while Matt did further online research. Jordan gathered images from various sources, while Michael typed in all of the information.
Each member took on the job of researching a number of states and territories, then had the task of typing in their information. Michael not only did his, but typed in all the extras, then volunteered to finish other members typing. Matthew's natural showmanship made him the perfect choice to play the role of gameshow host and Jordan's sense of humor kept the sessions light-hearted.
These four students are a diverse group indeed. Although they have all attended St. Margaret Mary School from Kindergarten through sixth grade, they are all from vastly different family backgrounds. Chris is of Scottish descent and comes from a family with a great deal of computer experience. Matt is of Italian descent and his family runs a sports shop in Rochester. Michael is of Polish descent and is very interested in robotics and mechanical devices. Jordan is of Puerto Rican descent and also has a father who works with computers.
Another issue, was the fact that St. Margaret Mary School did not have a computer curriculum before this year. In September, a new $50,000 computer lab was opened with state of the art equipment and an actual program in which students learned web page design and various other computer skills. I also began teaching here in September and was the first person in the school with an actual computer background. This had placed the students at an even greater disadvantage, as we had much more ground to cover.
One of the most difficult aspects of the project (in addition to controlling
episodes of sporadic goofing) turned out to be deciding on a name for the team.
Eventually we settled on LP3.
Time constraints would keep us from doing a number of interesting extras with the site, but the overall results were pleasing to everyone. We worked on the project every day during lunch and recess, spending every Tuesday after school for ninety minutes. We even came in on Saturdays for between four and six hours each session. I was amazed at the level of dedication. How many students would actually volunteer to come to school on a Saturday?
Putting together a project of this proportion is not an easy task. It takes determination, teamwork and a great deal of patience in order to work with the individual pieces and then watch them begin to come together. And come together they did. After many long weeks, the project was finally assembled and tested on February 27. Long hours and hard work had paid off at last.
We believe that this site has a great deal of educational value and will be very useful to students. While looking for some of this information, we found that it was not easy to find it all in one place. We hope that we have been able to provide an easy to use site which will make it easier for students and teachers to find information about the United States, its individual states and its territories. This information includes facts, flags and state songs. We have also provided interactive puzzles and games in order to facilitate student involvement.
My part in this project was to take the ideas of the students and show them how to make them come alive on the screen. We spent many sessions learning how to use JavaScript, midi files and animation in order to create a web site they could be proud of. I hope the team is as proud of their work as I am of them.
Richard S. Hartmetz