Thursday, November 12, 2020 - 6:49 am
Fifth-grade students in Carol Pincombe's and Tanya Zempel's classes are making the most of the virtual experience this fall.
The classes have had experts in a variety of areas participate in the Podium Speaker sessions, which run for approximately 45 minutes on Monday and Thursday each week during the school's WIN time.
"The silver lining of virtual learning is that with Zoom our speakers can be anywhere and they don't have to travel to us,'' Pincombe said.
Among the topics covered so far this semester were a dinosar paleontologist from the Chicago Field Museum, an Upham Woods representative talking about raptors, a nurse anethesist who did her virtual meeting from an operating room, and a judge who did her session from a courtroom.
On Nov. 11, a captain in the Navy and a colonel in the Army, who are also married, told students aboute their service on Veterans Day.
In all, more than 20 Podium Speakers will present to students during first semester.
Pincombe also said on Nov. 12 NASA scientist Dr. Rebecca Williams will speak to all Kromrey fifth-grade students. Williams worked on the Mars Rover, a motor vehicle that has traveled across the surface of the planet.
Meanwhile, on Nov. 23 a representative from the Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. will speak with students. The representative will lead students through a virtual tour as if they are on the Titanic. Students will receive boarding passes with names of actual people on the trip. By the end of the tour, the students will find out if their person survived or not.