I want to give public kudos to David Sparks, who publishes the excellent Mac Sparky blog, for his efforts to help educate elementary school students. You can read about David’s efforts in the following post from his blog:
Every year, about early June, I volunteer at the local elementary
school where I give a presentation about how laws are made and the role
of the courts and lawyers. This all started when my oldest daughter was
in fifth grade and the teachers keep asking me to come back. I love it.
It is so fun going over these topics with the kids and they ask such
good questions. Once I finish my dog and pony show, the kids have their
own mini-trial where they all play roles like the judge, attorneys,
witnesses and jury. The trial is about Humpty Dumpty. We all know he
fell, but why? Was it an accident? Or was it Murder! The kids conduct
their own trial and the jury returns a verdict.
In terms of Mac geekery, the presentation is built in keynote and
presented off my MacBook Air into the school’s projector. I use all
sorts of flashy word effects and transitions. It is much more glitzy
than my normal jury presentations. I think all the motion seems to keep
the kids interested. I seem to have lost my third-party remote since my
last trial so I had to use an Apple remote which worked fine.
It really was a blast to do it again this morning. My favorite
question was one tiny little girl who asked, “Is it fun to stand up and
yell objection?” to which I enthusiastically replied, “Yes!” If any of
you would like the trial materials or the Keynote presentation for the
fifth graders in your life, drop me a note. I even have a quicktime
clickable version for those of you stuck with Windows laptops. I’ve
seeded this out to lawyers and teachers all over the country the last
few years and love to hear it is getting used.
Source: "Return of Humpty Dumpty" by David Sparks, published at Mac Sparky.
