Eighth Grade Projects

Care and Management of Show Horses – Izzy Gravina-Budis
I learned about aspects of taking care of a show horse, including topics such as longeing, conformation and topline evaluation, hoof testing and lameness exams, as well as horse supplements. I worked at the stable with my mentor, Casey Norton, broadening my knowledge of these different topics.

Inclusive Clothing Resources – Flora Diehl-Noble
I volunteered at a consignment store in Middlebury called Buy Again Alley. I learned about small businesses and inclusive clothing stores. I volunteered at the store for eight weeks and learned a lot about running a small business, the way consignment works, and workplace skills.

Confidence and Style – Ellie Darland
How do we choose to present ourselves through clothing style, body language and beauty and how do these things affect how people view us and how we view ourselves? In one of the aspects of my project, I asked one of my teachers if I could interview them and find out about their style. Then I created three outfits for them and I wrote a paragraph on each explaining why I thought it would fit their style. Another aspect of my project was learning about beauty standards in different cultures and places.

Creating a Graphic Novel – Zoey Stone
I developed a graphic novel in the fantasy genre for my project.  The final project consists of an abstract, which I wrote, and includes a digitally drawn example chapter. I created additional artwork in the form of posters with my character sketches and key pages.

Daily Positivity Journal for Kids – Micah Witkin-Frishman
I created an interactive journal for children 8 to 12 years old that I learned to upload and sell on Amazon. I mainly designed it on Canva, which is a website that allows you to create digital work. The interior of this journal has prompts that ask kids about their day, aiming to help them better reflect upon it. Throughout this process, I learned many useful things including design and publishing skills. The journal is available for purchase here.

Portraits of Suffragist  – Lily Gruber
I created portraits depicting suffragists who fought for the voting rights of women. I created images of Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, Ida B.wells, and Zitkála-Šá. My work included a charcoal or pointillism drawing, and a background representing an aspect of their story.

Knifemaking – Will Hilgerdt
I learned how to make a knife out of 5160 steel from scratch. I learned how to use many of the machines necessary in blacksmithing and the beginner steps in making a basic hunting knife. I learned how to make a handle out of cherry wood and a sheath made out of leather.  I also made a brief guide on knife making.

Exploring the Stock Market – Ciaran May
I researched the stock market. I made a portfolio and charted some of the stocks on that portfolio. I also read some financial reports of companies. In addition to this I interviewed Ben Statz, who has first hand experience in the stock market and I read books about the stock market. My goal in this project was to learn more about the incredibly complicated stock market and to begin to understand it better myself.

Leotan: Love at First Sight – Molly Hoeltge
I wrote an epic love story between two K-Pop supergroups. However, it does not involve the members themselves, but rather, Yeontan and Lily, BTS’s Taehyung’s dog and BLACKPINK’s Lisa’s cat. I greatly improved my story writing skills while writing about things I love. After my story was complete, I learned how to upload it to the story writing platform, Wattpad. The title of my story is LEONTAN: Love at First Sight.

Making a 2D Video Game – Sam Bradley
I created a 2D video game with GameMaker Studio 2. There are 10 players to choose from that are based on all of the students in the eighth grade class, and my final product will have 2-4 levels. I’m planning on creating the whole video game out of my own digitally drawn art. In my presentation, I displayed my game, then went into further detail about the code behind the objects and characters.