College Place High School students display projects at community showcase

On the left side of the hallway, a student was explaining his results from an egg drop experiment to some inquiring adults.

Down a little further to the right, a group of students from an honors English class was handing out copies of "Hawks Fables," a booklet of original stories by students.

In all directions, laughter and excitement were in the air as students at College Place High School proudly showed off their work to parents and community members.

The College Place High School Semester One Student Showcase on Wednesday, Dec. 7, saw students from 11 classes presenting their work.

Though weather and road conditions were less than ideal, a couple hundred people were on site to check out the work of their local high schoolers.

Participating classes ranged in subjects from algebra to English, from plant biology to consumer math and more.

Junior Clayton Knowles said the event was a good opportunity for students to show off how hard they have been working this school year.

Knowles’ project was from an honors class assignment that asked students to use part of their Thanksgiving break to interview someone they knew who was at least 10 years older. Then they had to write a short paper about the interview and make a small visual representation.

Knowles chose to interview a family member.

“I interviewed my grandfather,” he said. He told me a couple stories, but one stood out to me the most.”

Knowles’ paper was about his grandfather’s story of a time he and Knowles’ grandmother were mourning the loss of their first son at 7 years old. They used to call the child their “rainbow boy,” Knowles said.

Knowles' paper said his grandparents decided to pray that night and ask for help. When they were done, they couldn’t help but notice a sight outside their window.

The moonlight was bouncing off mist created by nearby sprinklers producing a night-time rainbow in their backyard.

“It was small, but it was true sign that God was there with them,” Knowles wrote in his paper. “I love this because it shows that God cares, and He is with us through the hard times.”

Knowles’ classmate, junior Dawson Catlett, also interviewed his grandfather and wrote a paper and made a visual representation about his time in the military.

“He was in the Navy for almost 30 years and raised up the ranks to Rear Admiral,” he said. “I named (the project) No Regrets because at the end of the interview he said he has lived his life to the fullest and wouldn’t do anything differently from what he’s done.”

Knowles and Catlett both said the project brought them closer to someone they already know and made them learn something about that person they hadn’t before.

Elsewhere, junior Miguel Preciado described a container he made to protect an egg that was dropped — and survived.

More than 200 students participated in the showcase. College Place High School schedules the showcase twice a year.