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Megan Voils
Ben Kelly
  Lucas Wilcox and Luke McClelland

By Megan Voils, 5th grader at Lansdowne Elementary School

On Tuesday, October 30^th, four students from Lansdowne Elementary attended the S.T.L.P. Region 5 conference at Georgetown College.  Our school was going to present our S.T.L.P. project, “Book Talks.”  I was lucky to be one of the four students.

When we arrived at Georgetown College, we set up our booth.  I had mixed feelings.  I was excited but scared because there were so many other booths.  After we set up our booth, we attended a class on how to shoot a live newscast.  Luckily when they asked for volunteers to help demonstrate how the show was broadcast, I was picked to be an anchor.  I was very nervous, but I had fun.  The presenters from Morton did a very good job of teaching us how to present a newscast.

Then it was time for the judging.  I felt nervous when the judges came.  They asked a lot of questions.  I was so nervous that it was difficult to answer them.  After the judges left, we showed our project and answered question from the people viewing the presentations. 

We were able to walk around to view other booths.  I saw some very good booths.  One I remember was the power point booth.  It was very neat.  I learned a lot from the other booths.  All the work put into the individual projects made the S.T.L.P. conference a success.

The S.T.L.P. conference was more exciting than I expected. I can’t wait to go again next year!!

Ben Kelley, Paul Laurence Dunbar: STLP Memories

My Day at STLP

                We arrived on campus and found parking.  My day was to consist of an interview for the position of Junior Engineer.  It is a very hard position to get… the most technical position a student can get.  They interview and only take two per region to be on 4 teams at the state conference.  They are: WAN, LAN, Wiring and Software.  These teams are headed by a senior engineer, and work hand-in-hand with the regional engineers from the 8 regions around the state.  This year they will also be working with some companies as well as the regional engineers because some of the work has been outsourced to expedite the process of setting up the KYTLC in Louisville.  A very grueling and daunting task faces the 20 selected students once they arrive in Louisville.  By interviewing for these positions and selecting the best person, the conference will go off without a hitch.  These people will know exactly what to do and how to do it.  Many reasons go into choosing to apply for this position.  An obvious one is you get to go to Louisville for a week. The downside – you have to make up all the schoolwork you miss.  Another reason is it is a great opportunity to work with new people, learn new things about technology, and overall have a great experience.  It is a great opportunity for those looking to push themselves to the limit. 

By Lucas Wilcox and Luke McClelland, Winburn Middle School

            We arrived at Georgetown and registered, and split into different groups to tour the area.  Most of us went to classes such as Digital Art, iMovie, and Digital Music.  There were about 35 different classes that were being presented at the time we got there. In our eyes there was very little competition to challenge us. Of what we saw we were the only school showcasing a piece of software. The main piece of software that we showed was called Pontifex. Pontifex is a virtual bridge building program. Everyone one else had a PowerPoint about such things as character education and the STLP goals. One school showed how to install a stick of RAM. Many schools were projecting clips of their schools on screens so that everyone could see them.

I think the showcase that challenged us the most was the Dunbar high school showcase. They had created a website for the students by the students that was like a virtual classroom. Teachers could post tests and homework on the site for the students to do if they forgot.

A thing that helped lure kids to our showcase was a huge basket of candy. Once they got some candy we snared them by letting them build the bridges and test them to see if they would work. We actually have some potential buyers of the program. A part about Pontifex that really brought in the kids was the destruction phase that you got when you beat the game. They really loved that part. Luckily, that was only a few of the kids.