Norton, Conway are statewide runners-up
By Mark Hebert
April 20, 2023—Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) teams had seven teams finish in the top 20 in the 2023 Student Technology Leadership Program (STLP) State Championships in Lexington. More than 400 schools from across Kentucky participated in the competition. Norton Elementary School finished as the overall state runner-up in the elementary competition, while Conway Middle School took home the runner-up spot in the middle school division. JCPS schools with finishes in the overall top 20 were Bloom, Field, Layne, Norton, and Semple elementary schools, Conway Middle School, and Atherton High School.
"STLP is the perfect opportunity for JCPS students to demonstrate their creativity and innovation with technology through project based learning," said Russ Hockenbury, district STLP lead. "Our STLP coordinators and their teams work all year long to make it to the State Championship in April. I'm so proud to have seen this program grow from only nine JCPS schools in 2015 to over 90 schools participating this school year."
This was Atherton's first year in the state competition. They won first place in Technical Project for their “Fabricated Light Weather Reporting Station: FLWRS.” The team Atherton created a small weather station that is capable of monitoring local weather information and displaying that in real-time on a digital electronics device such as an iPad, Chromebook, or smartphone. The technology could be useful in pre-flight planning for unmanned aircraft systems.
In addition to the main competition, teams and individuals representing 16 JCPS schools took home 1st or 2nd place in Digital Product and Live Challenge competitions. Conway Middle School led all schools with six winners spread across the Augmented Reality, Data for Action, KY Travel, Media Literacy Awareness, Minecraft, and Multimedia Mashup categories.
All JCPS Project, Product, and Challenge winners can be viewed at this link.