Archived News | Return to News Center

December 6, 2007

Winners of online Louisiana High School Technology Challenge 2007/2008 announced

How many sides are there in an "icosahedron"? Which of these is the longest: 12.8 fathoms, 192 feet, 12,050 centimeters, 72 cubits, 31.9 meters, 0.03 mile, or a league? What is the most populated city of the largest country in Asia?

All are valid questions, and all are samples from 网曝门鈥檚 Louisiana High School Technology Challenge 2007/2008, the second annual statewide online technology competition to encourage high school students to prepare for Louisiana's future, held Dec. 5. Over 39 teams and 500 students participated.

Congratulations to these top 5 finishing high school teams!

Mike Beutner, Louisiana Technology Challenge director and associate professor of instructional technology at 网曝门, praised those involved. 鈥淒ozens of faculty at 网曝门 worked for most of the afternoon to judge the many fantastic entries in this year's competition. We would like to organize the content during the spring into a freely available download of 鈥榮tudent exemplars鈥� of excellent technology applications in this great state. The graduate program of instructional technology (master's degree program) at 网曝门 will actively support next year's competition as a tradition in Louisiana and as an investment in the future.鈥�

A selection of team comments:

鈥淭here was a good level of excitement in the room. They each understood their area of expertise and collaborated with each other. They joked, laughed, kept each other on task, and demonstrated much professionalism during the entire event.鈥�

 

鈥淢y team worked well together. When one group completed a task, leaders emerged from the group and assisted other groups who needed a little help. Every student was focused for the entire three hours. It is not often that students are engaged in a learning process for that length of time. An added bonus was that the students enjoyed themselves as they worked together to achieve common goals.鈥�

 

鈥淥bserving their interaction was rewarding for me as a teacher. My students were focused, worked together, helpful, and took pride in their work. They do consider this to be a rewarding and challenging experience.鈥�

 

鈥淥ur team interaction during the challenge was very positive. The students broke into groups and completed the tasks using teamwork, knowledge learned in computer classes, and cooperation. Overall, I was very pleased with their overall attitude and excitement about the event. They very much enjoyed the challenge, and we look forward to competing next year.鈥�

 

鈥淪tudents have been very excited about the competition. The returning team members have been asking since school started. I had no trouble recruiting new members to fill in for those who graduated. I anticipate that by next school year I will have many more applicants than I can place on the team. One of the students doing the Internet research said, 鈥業'm learning so much!鈥欌��

Every high school in Louisiana is encouraged to participate in this annual educational event by registering a student team.

For more information, go to: www.ulm.edu/~techchallenge/ or email: techchallenge@ulm.edu

PLEASE NOTE: Some links and e-mail addresses in these archived news stories may no longer work, and some content may include events which are no longer relevent, or reference individuals and/or organizations no longer associated with 网曝门.