BVMS’s World’s Fair returns after two year hiatus
Wilma Kirkeby/For the Journal
Isaac Irvine (from left), Travis Rowberry, Owen May, Hayes Bortnem and Eli Steltz dressed up as kangaroos for their World’s Fair presentation on Australia.
Wilma Kirkeby/For the Journal
Jackson Arend (from left), Evelyn Van Den Oever, Claire Mofle, Hayden Poppe and Jacob Kluver dress in traditional Netherlands clothing for their World’s Fair presentation.
Last week, 250 Brandon Valley Middle Schoolers presented their countries in BVMS’s annual World’s Fair. With 60 presentations total, students transported community members all over the world to places like Argentina, Belgium, Spain, Australia and more.
The fair, which started in 2010 as an interdisciplinary program, has since moved to a geography-focused project where students pick a country, research it, plan a hypothetical trip complete with travel, lodging and entertainment costs and present their countries on World’s Fair nights.
Brady Olson, who has been involved with World’s Fair since 2010, and Ty Tietjen, who’s new to the project this year, are the two seventh grade geography teachers in charge of the event.
“It’s about that excitement and interest in the world and other cultures and finding out about people and places and what they actually like, as opposed to just textbooks and glossing over it,” Olson said.
The project started in March when students picked their countries in an NFL draft format and began researching with their groups. Students essentially act as travel agents trying to convince people to visit their country. They research flights to the country, different places to stay and a plethora of activities unique to the country that will hopefully entice their audiences to travel there.
Logan Torgrude, Xander Martin, London Geiver, Lauren Gerken and Quinten McManus, all students in Olson’s seventh-grade geography class, chose Argentina as their destination.
“I felt like we learned a lot about Argentina, but we also went out of our comfort zone a lot during the presentation because we had songs and jokes and stuff in there so we really got to be brave in front of people,” Torgrude said.
While it is not required, some students go all out with ethnic foods and cultural outfits, and some even incorporated performances.
The Argentina group wrote two parody songs to open and close their presentation. They rewrote the lyrics to “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel, a popular song referencing famous historical people and events, for Argentina. They also rewrote the lyrics to “Love Story” by Taylor Swift to close out their presentation.
Spain’s group, Grace Drew, Gabby Klein, Weston Hieb, Gage Mandery and Isaac Spahr, recreated a bullfight and performed a traditional flamenco dance.
Hayes Bortnem, Isaac Irvine, Owen May, Travis Rowberry and Eli Steltz’s country was Australia and they dressed up in kangaroo onesies for their presentation.
When asked what the most interesting thing they learned about Australia was, Rowberry said, “I didn’t expect that kangaroos can jump 25 feet long and like six and a half feet high.”
Tianna Morrison-Simmons was a part of the Belgium group and said her favorite things about Belgium is the flag and what each color represents, Antwerp, dubbed the Diamond City, and a bronze statue called Manneken Pis.
Morrison-Simmons also said she liked “the attractions, their religions, the food, the clothing and the music” of Belgium.
One of the bigger projects the Belgium group pulled off was a replica of the flower carpet that is located at the Grand Palace in Belgium’s capitol, Brussels.
According to Olson and Tietjen, the food is always the part students are most excited about.
Spain’s group served brunellos, paella and patatas bravas. Australia’s group had the popular chocolate cookies, TimTam, and Vegemite. The student’s in Argentina’s group made uru mote, alfajores and empanadas.
“It’s fun because they find candy online or at a store in downtown Sioux Falls and there’s different ethnic markets in Sioux Falls,” Olson said about students finding creative ways to implement cultural food into their presentations.
Olson said he hopes the World’s Fair is more than just an assignment students have to complete, but an opportunity to learn real-world skills like group collaboration and conflict resolution.
“After working together for seven weeks, you can get on each other’s nerves a little bit and maybe, somebody doesn’t quite do something and so it’s processing how do you deal with conflict, how do you handle that, because there’s always going to be conflict all of your life,” he said.
As teachers, both Olson and Tietjen said they really enjoy seeing what the students come up with and their collaboration during the project.
“I just love to see the whole thing come together, where it starts and then where it ends up and to see how creative kids can be if you give them that chance,” Tietjen said.
