More than 248 EAST programs from Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma gathered at the Hot Springs Convention Center the week before Spring Break to pick up awards and celebrate wins during the EAST Initiative’s annual conference.
Warren High School EAST received an Overall Founders Award at the annual EAST Initiative Conference held in Hot Springs. The EAST Founders Award was given to three out of 260 schools this year. The three schools exemplified the main components an EAST program should have: Community Involvement, Project Sophistication and Innovation, and Student Growth and Engagement. To win the award, schools must submit a 10 minute video explaining their program’s story and the projects they have worked on throughout the year.
“Because we began the school year with only computers and a printer, we heavily focused on learning new softwares like Sketchup,
Tinkercad, Thunkable and ArcGIS. We also reached outside of Warren for new community partners in Pine Bluff, Lake Village and McGehee,” said Warren High School EAST instructor Payton Reep.
“We created 360 virtual tours for the Bradley County Veterans Museum, Lakeport Plantation and the Japanese-American Internment Museum,” said Victoria O’Neill, a junior at Warren High School and EAST student. “We used ArcGIS for the first time to create a layered map that shows the correlation between crime locations and streetlights. We are 3D scanning and printing a water filter handle for the Delta Rivers Nature Center, recreating cemetery plot maps, creating apps and of course live-streaming!”
Lily Dawkins, a senior at Warren High School and another EAST student said, “Starting over with absolutely nothing was incredibly difficult. Comfortable project ideas were no longer obtainable and we were forced to reach outside of our knowledge and comfort zone. We never imagined that something so devastating, like losing our entire school and program would push us into higher sophisticated projects, more community partners and extreme student growth.”
The Warren EAST Students represented Warren High School well at the conference.
“Being a Founders Award Winner is a huge honor that came with many opportunities for the students. 50 Warren High School EAST students were able to attend the annual conference held in Hot Springs,” said Sledge. “They were asked to give a speech in front of 3,500+ people in the opening session, host a breakout session about our program, be interviewed by THV11 and speak at Rotary. This time last year, I was worried that we would have a terrible year with no school and none our usual technology. Looking back, I am so proud of the progress the students have made in learning new equipment, softwares and solving problems in our area. They impress me everyday.”
EAST is always looking for new community partners to provide students with real world challenges for unique learning opportunities. They are always trying to find new project ideas, especially those that could benefit from advanced softwares like ArcGIS and ESRI. If you would like to learn more about our projects, please visit: https://arcg.is/4D0y.
