EAST Conference 2008

The Star City EAST Lab Conference Team, during the days of  Feb.19-21, at Hot Springs AR,  represented Star City EAST Lab at EAST Conference. Star City's EAST Lab received the Superior School Award. This is the highest ranking award of School Ranking. Their Program Impact Assessment Overall Score shows that Star City EAST Lab (on a 4 point scale) has been graded as a 4-point program. The EAST Teams from around the nation made booths and exhibited their projects and programs that have been going on at their school.  Just as last year, a PowerPoint presentation was created to present to the judges about Star City's EAST program. While at EAST Conference, students had classes and courses that allowed professional help to teach them in a hands-on environment about programs or software. Also, the EAST program had Governor Mike Beebe come to EAST Conference and give a speech to EAST Teams from all over the nation.
 

Freshmen Orientation The Freshmen Orientation group is working on a video to help make the transition for students coming from the eighth grade to the ninth grade smoother. The video will include class room locations and their area of education, and the locations of the vocational classes that are not located in the main building. This video will help the freshmen students familiarize with their new surroundings and become accustomed to the locations of their core classes. Adult Technology The Star City EAST lab will be holding an Adult Technology class on digital photography and cameras. The students who will be teaching this class are Candace M. and Victoria H. Classes will begin with the basics and work up from there. To attend these classes adults do not have to own a digital camera, but you must have some knowledge of computers. These classes will be held once a week for approximately nine weeks in the Star City High School EAST lab. The Pursuit of Happy-ness The EAST Lab team, "The Pursuit of Happy-ness" group worked  to help raise the awareness and Homelessness in Lincoln County throughout the National Hunger and Homelessness Week. Click Here for Additional Information Bayou Bartholomew Students from five EAST Labs gathered at the Star City EAST Lab September 5, 2007 to organize a collaborative project about Bayou Bartholomew. The bayou is the longest bayou in the world spanning some 359 miles. The bayou begins in Jefferson County and runs through Lincoln, Drew, Desha, and Ashley County before entering Louisiana, The bayou is also one of two of the most ecological diverse ecosystems in North America. The schools working on the project are: Monticello Sr. High EAST program, Drew Central EAST program, Hamburg EAST program, McGehee Sr. High EAST program and our very own Star City EAST program. Arkansas EAST students hope to include schools near the bayou in Louisiana to also participate in this project. They will also be working with the Bayou Bartholomew Alliance, many community members, and local and state officials. Cure for the Cause This project pertains to cancer. The three main cancer types that this group are focusing on are: Leukemia, Skin Cancer, and Lymphoma. The team will explain to others about those three types. They will also tell them possible ways to prevent these cancers. They are focused on presenting this project to the Middle School's 6th Grade Science classes. They have compiled a video to show them on the Life-story about Rhea M. and how she coped with her cancer. They have created a fun, educational game that the students will play afterwards, testing them for how much they have learned, called "The Battle of Cancer".   The Silent Epidemic   The Silent Epidemic project will help students make the right, intelligent choices concerning High School Drop-outs. This project is focusing on keeping as many as possible students in school for their own benefit in the future. This project is meant to teach high school students what a privilege it is even to go to school, and how wasteful it is if you drop-out.

Violence Against Women This project is based upon the crimes committed against women. Josh and Morgan  have done extensive research on this growing issue in American society. They have also compiled a PowerPoint, complete with the different types of violence and how it pertains to high school females. The group is in the midst of getting a victim for a speaker and holding an assembly.   Dress for Success The Dress for Success project focuses on the problem with today's youth's wardrobe. This project will demonstrate to others how to dress and what is appropriate for certain occasions. The Dress for Success team is planning on holding an assembly for the eighth grade students. The assembly will include speakers Katie Bailey, Miss Arkansas 2007 and Coach David Farr. It will also include a fashion show showing examples of how to dress casually for occasions such as school and how to dress up for more formal occasions such as Proficiency Banquets, Jr. Beta Inductions, etc. Additional Information Deer Research Project This group has developed a project that is not only fun to be involved in, but can be beneficial to others.  Their project is about Deer Research. The group's goal is to develop two different food plots made up of rye grass and oats to attract whitetail deer.  These two plots are located 10 miles south of Star City on Tim Furneaux’s land.  Once the deer start feeding in the plots they will have deer cameras located nearby to capture the deer.  The reason behind having 2 plots was to have one for a control plot and one for the experimental plot.  In the experimental plot we will use different types of deer attractants such as scents and different types of food, to see how the deer react to them.  One of our cameras also captures video and we will use this in both plots for better observance. They will also keep a data sheet to record our findings. At the end of the project they will then use the pictures, video, and data we have collected and make them into a pod-cast and put them on the internet for public use.  The students believe that this project can be very beneficial to those studying deer and for hunters.   School Mapping Left-Right: Ty T., Blake B., and Jordan B. The School Mapping Project is at a standstill right now. As of right now, the group has mapped most of the school with only a few buildings left. They already have a map provided from Geostar, which is an internet site that has maps of Arkansas. They have downloaded the map onto Arc map, which is software that they used to edit maps. The group is having problems exporting their data and can not go farther until that problem is fixed. Crossing Guard The Crossing Guard team has been working with the Elementary crossing guard, Mrs. Donna Pennington, to help her improve the safety of the students. In September, Mrs. Pennington came to the EAST Lab and expressed her concern with the parents not obeying her directions.   Left-Right: Meghan P., Shelby , Mrs. Pennington, Brent J., and Liza D. Click Here for Additional Information .Music Creation Project The music creation project was created with the intentions of creating original music for other EAST Lab projects.  The students are creating this music using the GarageBand software on the newly purchased Mac computers.  This music will be used to enhance the quality of other EAST student's videos and presentations and prevent them from violating copyright laws by using other artist's work without their consent.  So far they have created one song for the Bayou Bartholomew video.  The students feel that if their project continues at the same rate, that it will be successful in meeting all of its goals.