Park Avenue Memorial Elementary School students now have additional technology at their disposal following the donation of three Chromebooks by the Amityville Rotary Club.

Rotary Club members presented the donation to district officials on June 7 in the Park Avenue library. The three Acer touchscreen Chromebooks are in addition to devices already available in the school. Sixth-grade students demonstrated how they use Chromebooks to learn computer programming by participating in coding activities through KidOYO.

“We know that these Chromebooks will be put to good use as it prepares us to get ready for the modern technology world,” said sixth-grader Donovan Graham, a student member of the district Technology Committee. 

Amityville Rotary Club Foundation Chairwoman Virginia Belling explained to students about the purpose of the organization and its local and global service projects. She encouraged students to join the Interact Club, a Rotary-sponsored community service club for youth, when they get to high school. 

“We thank the Amityville Rotary Club for their generous donation and their continued support of our students and our community,” said Superintendent Dr. Mary T. Kelly. “This helps further our mission of providing students with access to a wide variety of engaging technological tools and resources.”

After learning about erosion, rocks, plate tectonics, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle, sixth-graders at Park Avenue Memorial Elementary School shared their knowledge with their younger peers.

The school hosted its annual Science Project Fair on May 17, and sixth-graders set up their displays in the auditorium. Fourth- and fifth-graders visited the fair to learn about the different scientific concepts.

Students worked in teams and one group per class was assigned to each of the five topics that comprised the sixth-grade science curriculum. The teams had to create poster board presentations.

Teacher Deborah Ross said that in addition to mastering the content, the students had to put great thought into their projects and create well-organized poster boards. She explained that presentation skills will become increasingly more important as they get older and even could be necessary when interviewing for jobs.