"My Best Gateway" Winners Impress

Barnstable Public schools held a "My Best Gateway" contest through the Friends of Gateway. Students submitted either art work and/or a video about what Gateway means to them and to their educational experience along with a logo and description of the project.

Gateway is a program for talented students who demonstrate a high level of creativity and/or excel at academics. It is an enrichment program that gives students an outlet to use their talents.

This contest was open to students from second to twelfth grade. There were four age groups with submissions at the second through third level and sixth and seventh. The Friends of Gateway board picked winners from each group.

Hannah Bertling, a third-grader at West Villages Elementary, drew a picture of her experiences at her new school compared to her old school. In the split picture drawing, Hannah drew herself in color with the background in greys at her old school and on the other half she drew herself in color with a colorful setting representing she was her oldself at her old school, but here everyone is much more colorful and happy, according to her write-up about the picture.

Ryan Chevalier, a seventh-grader at Barnstable Intermediate School, created a DNA Twister project where two creatures, in this case an egale and a alligator, are fused together through DNA to create a new animal. The project was a big box with knobs for two modes. Both animals and toys entered the box separtely, but come out as one - in this case a dragon where the user can pick the color. Ryan made a video explaining his project as part of the contest requirements.

"He was just fantastic," gateway teacher Stephanie Platt said.

Kudos to these talented students. The Friends of Barnstable Gateway awarded the winners with Flip cameras.