Whiz Kid: DuVall Students Study Health and Fitness

Name: Austin Fredericks and Ryan Strojny

Ages: 10 and 9

School:

Accomplishment: Collecting and analyzing data isn’t a typical activity for third- and fourth-graders, but for Austin Fredericks and Ryan Strojny of the Duvall Statistics Club, the activity turned out to be quite an experience.

The students took part in–with exceptional enthusiasm–a long-term survey project to answer the fundamental questions: How much do students know about health, and how much do they exercise?

The project’s beginnings took place earlier this year in teacher Jacki Alabacoff’s classroom, said Fredericks, who is in the fourth grade.

“We asked students if they exercise, or if they play sports or take part in activities,” said Fredericks. “We wanted to know if they knew anything about health.”

Strojny, also a fourth-grader, said the fourth-graders spearheaded the project.

“We presented the information to the third-graders,” he said. “We took their suggestions about the presentation. They wanted us to change some of the colors in the presentation because they couldn’t see them, and we did that.”

After that, the information was given to the school via a PowerPoint presentation meant to get kids excited about health and fitness, said Alabacoff.

“The survey provided the students with quite a bit of information,” she said.

Key to Awesomeness: Both Fredericks and Strojny really took the information-gathering project to heart, said Alabacoff.

“Whenever we needed to get on the computer to make changes to the presentation, they were ahead of it,” she said. “They noticed many things about the presentation, and made changes to regularly.”

Austin is the son of Richard and Elizabeth Fredericks of Dearborn, and Ryan is the son of Marty and Vicki Strojny, also of Dearborn. Both of the boys have a lot in common; when they’re not in class they both enjoy playing and watching sports.

Both Ryan and Austin are looking forward to playing baseball in a league this summer, and both are still thinking about what they would like be when they grow up.

Do you know a Dearborn student who has worked hard to find the answers of complex questions? Do you know a student that shows and ability to work with a group towards a common consensus? Does that student’s hard work and initiative rival the most motivated of adults? If so, we’d like to hear from you.  Everyone deserves a little attention, and we want to tell these stories.

E-mail your Whiz Kid nominations to Editor Jessica Carreras at Jessica.carreras@patch.com. Please include the name, age, school, achievement and key to awesomeness, as well as a photo. Then come back every Wednesday for our Whiz Kid spotlight. You never know who may be smiling at you from the computer screen.