Grade School’s High-Tech Fair Is Today

To demystify and encourage use of “hypercard” stacking, the World Wide Web and other technologies, school officials are sponsoring a fair today that they hope will draw parents and children from kindergarten through high school.

“We thought it would be helpful to let parents know what we have and also what we hope to have for the future,” Carol McAllister, principal of Hopkinson Elementary School, said Friday.

Students know their way around a keyboard as early as second grade, she said, and they have a voracious interest in learning more. “Our students are fascinated by the new challenges and expanded learning capabilities this technology has in store for them.”

Sponsored by Los Alamitos Unified School District, the fair includes more than 50 demonstrations of educational technology.

Organizers said they hope the hands-on display of everything from video production to CD-ROM programs will motivate parents to take part in an ambitious $1.6-million fund-raising drive to enhance the district’s computer systems.

The district’s educational foundation, which is sponsoring the fair and sets long-term technology goals for the schools, would like to acquire a network of computers for every classroom and to modernize the district’s library system.

Students will be on hand today to show how they use computer and video equipment, for instance, to prepare reports on the U.S presidency or animal habitats. And as Hopkinson students in a biology class were doing Friday, they will offer suggestions to teachers on how to use the equipment.

“Unghost it!” a chorus of fourth-graders shouted as their teacher, Dana Wellen, tried to close a computer file.

“I don’t know that term,” Wellen admitted. “It must be something you’re learning in your media class.”

The fair, free and open to the public, will be at Hopkinson Elementary, 12582 Kensington Road, Rossmoor, from noon to 4 p.m.