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Home Page   Local News   Local Sports   Community Calendar   Opinion   Editorials   Columns   Letters to the Editor   Archives   News Archives   Sports Archives	5-31-2007 Students show off research projects By JIM AUSTIN Editor Eighth grade students at Cooperstown Central School have been studying the impacts of transportation and technology on the environment, society and the economy and last week showed off the results of their work. Teacher Brad Smith said all 94 students in the eighth grade were divided into groups of three of four to study the impacts brought about by events like the advent of the automobile and aviation. "I think the students did a wonderful job," Smith said. "They pulled it off pretty well." This was first time for the program and Smith said that aside from a little modification, it will likely become a regular part of the school year. Each group of students had to research their topic and then put together a display to present their findings. Smith said they tried to make use of as many local sources as possible and did much of their research at the New York State Historical Association library. Students also visited the Hall of Fame where they learned about what goes into making an attractive and effective display. The program was designed as an inter-disciplinary activity that made use of what students had learned in other classes. The trio of Jessica Terrell, Laura Harmon and Alex French studied the Erie Canal and the impact it has had on the environment, society and the economy. Smith said that in most cases, each group of students focused on a fifty years span, but the three girls looked at the canal from its beginnings in 1808 to today. Terrell, who is the only one of the three that has been on the canal, said each one looked at a different impact, but all three teamed up to write journal entries for a family traveling from Cooperstown to Albany. French and Harmon both said they were interested to learn how much it affected the country by moving so many people and speeding the western expansion of settlers. The Erie Canal's lock system and how it works was another of the more interesting things the girls said they learned in the project. "I didn't know how many times it was changed and made deeper and wider," French said. "A flower merchant thought of the idea for the Erie Canal and it changed history," Terrell said.
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