Students romp to victory with website
The team from Coláiste an Chraoibhín in Fermoy picked up the best project prize in their category at the Eircom Junior Spider Awards in Dublin this week. The event celebrates the best in web design and use of the internet by students from primary and second-level schools.
For the first-year group at the north Cork school, their website about War Horse was spawned by the work in a number of classes on the original book. They decided to showcase the projects being done in a number of other subjects, including art, computing, drama, metalwork and music.
“I had a small bit of knowledge about web design before, from stuff I’d taught myself,” said a delighted Aaron English.
Fellow team-member Jasmine McCarthy-Dingivan said they learned lots from the project, although web design is not on her career list for now.
“We knew we had done well but we didn’t think we were going to win the award, we’re all delighted,” she said.
The celebrations were continuing back in school yesterday as the team showed off their prize.
For metalwork teacher and project coordinator John Potter, it was the culmination of a range of work in which most of the school’s 120 first-years did various projects around the book. “I helped to co-ordinate them but they put in a huge amount of work at lunchtimes and after school,” he said.
The website gives interesting information about War Horse’s links with the First World War, with the students also learning how to design a film story board and use hi-tech graphics, as well as offering visitors a chance to test their knowledge in a quiz.
The awards saw more than a dozen prizes given out under the headings of Mega Spiders (for primary pupils), Giga Spiders for second-level students from first-years to third-years, and Tera Spiders for those in fourth, fifth and sixth-year.
The top Grand Prix award in the Tera Spiders went to Lee-Loi Chieng from Holy Family Community School, Rathcoole, Co Dublin. He previously won the 2010 Giga Spiders overall prize for his Geek of Comedy website that reviews technology products, offers video tutorials and blogs on topics such as installing new operating systems and the latest laptops and smartphones.
“We had such a great mix of projects this year from class blogs to websites on exam tips, music and the environment. It is great to see such talent among the students and the high level of entries submitted for each award category,” said Carolan Lennon, judging panel chairperson and Eircom’s chief consumers commercial officer.
