Brooke students were top winners at state event

WELLSBURG — Several students from Brooke middle and high schools were top winners at a state competition challenging their ability to produce short videos, create websites and video games and apply other technical skills.

The school’s chapter of Technology Students of America was among TSA chapters from 30 schools participating in various competitions at the West Virginia TSA Conference March 19-22 in Ripley.

Chris Mockbee, career technical instructor at the high school and the chapters’ adviser, said Xander DeSimone, a sophomore, placed first for photographic technology and will go on to compete in the national TSA conference to be held in Nashville in June.

DeSimone and others in that competition entered a series of digital photos they have improved through editing with documentation outlining the steps involved, then were charged at the event with taking a series of digital photos of one subject from different angles.

Mockbee said photos submitted by DeSimone for the first phase included closeups he had taken of insects.

He noted Jimmy DeMaria, a sixth grader at the middle school, placed second in the flight competition in which students created wooden airplanes to be propelled with rubber bands.

Mockbee said in building the planes, the youth must meet certain specifications while making them as aerodynamic as possible.

The planes are judged on such criteria as well as the distance they have flown.

The team of Isaac Orovic, a senior at the high school; and Quentin Toth, a junior, placed second in both the video game design and web master competitions.

Mockbee said the two have been in their school’s video game design class, where they have used software used by professional video game designers to create their own games.

He said the two put a lot of hours into their game for the state conference, ensuring it included the required number of levels and met other criteria to be measured by the judges who played and assessed them.

For the web master competition, the two were charged with creating a web site featuring copy and photos related to various recipes.

Orovic also placed third in the audio podcasting competition, for which he entered three pre-recorded podcasts, each 90 seconds, with fellow club members as his guests and was charged, during the conference, with producing three more podcasts, on a topic provided by the event’s organizers, within a 24-hour period.

Toth also placed third in a contest of a similar vein, the on-demand video competition.

With help from fellow club members, Toth produced a five-minute video using assorted household items supplied by the contest’s coordinators and with a story based around the question, “What was that?”

Toth also was given 24 hours to write the script and film and edit the video.

“He had almost the whole group of kids involved,” said Mockbee.

He said nearly all of the competitions require the students to document the process they followed to complete their projects.

“It’s all about design,” said Mockbee.

He said some of the club’s members have been students in the school’s foundations of engineering class, while others have explored their interest in other fields through the assorted courses offered through the school district’s career technology program.

For example, Toth has been a student of the high school’s broadcasting technology program.

“That’s one of the great things about our CT program. The kids have a lot of choices in what they can do,” he said.