The Great Depression parallels of today?

The Introduction to Business students just completed a unit from the St Louis Federal Reserve about The Great Depression economic lessons, in September 2012.  These included topics such as the Federal Reserve as out Central Bank, Monetary Policy, Inflation & Deflation, the Money Supply, Unemployment, GDP and other topics.  These were discussed in correlation to how they effect the economy and how the government can influence these factors.  All 18 students took a pretest and then completed a post test on each of the six sections with the scores increasing an average of 32% on the post tests.  This is the first time Mr. Kuhlers has used these specific materials in his class and plans to use them again next year with a few modifications.  The information is located at http://bts.stlouisfed.org.

FBLA Officers have been busy!

Check out the following Alburnett FBLA Marketing tools to start the year:

Zach Hoyle created the chapter logo

Katelyn Burns-Thompson created the recruitment brochure and meeting reminder:

Alburnett FBLA 2012-13 Recruitment Brochure

Alburnett FBLA 2012-13 Meeting Reminder


Christine Ries created twitter account @alburnett_FBLA and will be updating the cell phone application, scan the below qr code to install:

Creating & Using Cell Phone Applications

In the Spring of 2012 my Desktop Publishing students created cell phone applications using www.mobile.conduit.com which is free.  This summer I have had time to develop and learn more about the program and load the two samples below; one is for my FBLA chapter-I have found that my parents check our chapter website but students use their cell phones more and then app will be a great tool for them to get information and the second qr code is to download my application for my classes with some basic information.  If you want to know more I have also attached a .pdf file to check out or drop me an e-mail at kkuhlers@alburnett.k12.ia.us

Alburnett FBLA App                            Mr. Kuhlers Class App
                                         
If you have ideas or other information you feel should be included on either of these apps please let me know, thanks. 

Summer Enrichment 2012

WOW! How time flies when students are engaged and learning.  This year we invited the top 10 students, based on an average of math & science test scores from Iowa Tests & MAP, from each of the grades 6, 7 & 8.  We had 17 students participate.  Students spent time blabberizing at www.blabberize.com, learning Arduino circuit board technology, making a movie in Office 2010 MovieMaker Live, and creating video games with Gamemaker 8.1.

Our camp ran from Wednesday, August 1 to Wednesday, August 8 from 8:30a.m. to noon.  The last day students showcased their projects to their parents and relatives, check out the pictures in the slideshow below, some of the video games students created will be posted.

Games will be published shortly

Resources to check out:

www.gimp.org - photo editing free, like PhotoShop
projectpln.com - check out grade 12 projects, especially one on bottom.
www.wolframalpha.com - will answer all your questions, even homework questions-including
calculus!

Students visit Henry Russel Bruce Regional Advertising Agency

On Thursday, January 6, 24 Alburnett students from WebDesign Class and FBLA had the opportunity to visit Henry Russell Bruce (HRB) Regional Advertising Agency in Cedar Rapids for an interactive presentation on print and web design. HRB is a full-service advertising agency and internet marketing firm that builds brands and generates business for its clients.

We arrived about 9a.m. and were greeted by Thebeau, the CEO, who gave us a brief overview of the company. Then Jeff McEachron, the Senior Vice-President of Internet Marketing, discussed web design with the students. He started by reviewing how different ages of people receive their news, and then led into a discussion about creating websites for the target audience and what they need and how people may search on the web for information, using Alburnett student Haley Sevening and how she would search for shoes. Mr. McEachron continued with research as to hw the eye travels through a website and making sure a good website uses hot spots. At the end of his presentation, he reviewed with the group some different attributes on some websites, emphasizing the reason the items are on the website and what they are trying to accomplish. Briefly he discussed browsers and some of the differences, stressing the importance of testing each website in different browers.

After Mr. McEachron, Steve Erickson, the President and Creative Director, discussed print media and talked through how samples are created, emphasizing the importance of planning and putting important thought into what you are trying to have the customer take away from your media. He showed us many samples that HRB has created and gave us an office tour.

This was an outstanding experience for the Alburnett students and special thanks to HRB for making 2 hours to host and inform us about the Graphic Design area and careers. Also, thanks to Mrs. Miller, Alburnett Art teacher for attending. We hope to be able to do this again next year.

Former student speaks to 7th & 8th graders

On Tuesday & Wednesday (Dec 21-22), Mr. Kyle Loux visited with my 7th & 8th grades classes about careers and specifically engineering. Mr. Loux graduated from Alburnett two years ago and is currently attending Purdue University studying Computer Engineering. Mr. Loux spent about 45 minutes with each class discussing many topics and answering student questions. Zach Prucha, an 8th grader, commented, "There are a lot more options for engineers and types of engineers than I thought." Another 8th grader, Tony McFarlin commented, "Engineering is in pretty much everything." Anna Possehl stated, "You have to take Physics to be a successful engineer." A question that a student asked was, "Did you take hare classes your senior year or easy classes?" Mr. Loux responded by challenging the students to be conintually challengin themselves with hard classes and learning everything possible in high school as that will help in the transition to college. An interesting statistic Mr. Loux discussed is that, it is estimated 50% of the current engineers in the U.S. will be retirement age in approximately 10 years. This will created a lot of opportunities for current high school students to focus on finding a good career in engineering. Thank you Mr. Loux, the students were engaged and had great questions!