VIENNA — More than 100 parents, students and residents filled Mathews Elementary School’s multipurpose room as its Science, Art, Technology and Cultural Fair returned for a second year Thursday evening.
The fair, which returned last year after a multi-year hiatus previously, brought 40 students in grades kindergarten through fifth together as they created presentations that tested their creative, observational and critical thinking skills.
Elementary Principal Michael King explained that students had the chance to come through and look at the projects during the day prior to the event, so that they could cast their votes for their favorites. Parents who attended had the chance to do the same thing.
King, a parent of several children himself, said he was excited to see the hard work of their students and give them some well-deserved recognition, understanding that extracurricular education has to compete with distractions such as Fortnite and other games nowadays.
“Seeing that they’re doing this and there’s enough kids that took time out of their evenings and spent time with their families,” King said. “Some of these projects are things that some of our kids couldn’t do alone.”
King said they try to keep the parental aspect minimal, that he encourages them to be there to guide and encourage and let their child do the work. It develops good family time with them as well though, he added.
Elizabeth Oaks, Mathews PTO president and the fair’s organizer, explained that they had 35 children attend last year, which was pretty good for them considering the school has 270 elementary students. She credited the teachers for the uptick in participants.
“A lot of our teachers, (they) really encourage the kids to think outside the box. We have excellent teachers here across the board in science,” Oaks said. “We have an art program this year, for the first time, an art instructor and I think that they’ve encouraged the kids and given them ideas and helped them work them out.”
Oaks said Amanda Fetty-Cole, a paraprofessional and aide who also serves as an art instructor for the school, has made a “big difference.”
Oaks said that while communication is always one of the biggest challenges they face putting on the fair, the children are always excited to participate, so they always make sure their parents know.
Landon Brunson, a fifth grader at Mathews, set up a diagram of an eye with a poster board describing facts about each part of it.
“I like the human body, and I like learning about the eyeballs,” he said.
Paul Weimer, who attended the fair because he has four grandkids in the school system and two who set up for the event, said it was a great way to bring the community together.
“I think it’s great; I mean, because you get a chance to pick a topic that they’re interested in and display it for everybody to see and maybe talk a bit about it as people come through,” Weimer said. It brings the community together in the wintertime, which is nice.”
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