It’s always fun at the start of the school year for some of our district’s schools to take a photo of all the students in an entire grade (like all the 8th graders at Stimson for their yearbook or all the kindergarten classes together at Countrywood and Oakwood). Our intrepid district photographer Liz DeMonte goes to great lengths to get these wide shots from above including climbing on the building’s roof (safely, of course) or going up in the bucket of Huntington Manor Fire Department’s ladder truck.

So when Maplewood Intermediate School decided they wanted to take a special photo for the district’s 100th anniversary featuring EVERY student in EVERY grade - almost 600 students - we knew we’d need to go way up high. Third grade teacher Diane Cristine, along with Maplewood’s 100 Year Anniversary Committee, came up with the idea of having all of the Maplewood students take part in a commemorative photograph for the district’s 100 year anniversary. Ms. Cristine contacted Whitman science research and computer science teacher Fred Feraco and asked if any of his students that were using a drone for research could come to Maplewood and take the photo from the air. Those high school research students were excited to volunteer.

Then on October 30th, it was time to head out to the school field to take the picture. With help from our high school visitors, Liz DeMonte, and our Maplewood staff, it took a little time and a lot of organizing to get every student and teacher in place to form “MW 100,” but they did an awesome job and the photo looks great! 

After taking the aerial photo, Mr. Feraco and his students stopped in to talk with Mrs. Janine D’Elia’s 5th grade Technology Ambassadors to learn about how drones work and how they’re used in research. One high school student explained how he is using the drone to study trees to determine how invasive lantern flies are impacting the life of trees. The Technology Ambassadors enthusiastically asked a lot of questions, and got the chance to see what learning opportunities await them when they get to Whitman.

Thank you to Mr. Feraco and our high school research students Jake Williams, Ibrahim Farooq, Shayaan Siddiqui, and Chris Martinez for sharing their drone expertise with the Maplewood tech students, and for getting some terrific shots and capturing this special celebratory photograph at Maplewood!

The high schoolers gave Maplewood PE Teacher, Mr. Joe Slovak, a preview of the ‘MW 100’ from up above to get a realtime visual of the schoolwide formation. 

After the drone photo was taken, Mr. Feraco (bottom left) and his science research students visted Maplewood’s 5^th grade Technology Ambassadors. 

Maplewood students were shown the controls to the hi-tech drone. 

Mrs. Janine D’Elia’s 5th grade Technology Ambassadors learned about how drones work and how they’re used in research projects at the high school. They were thrilled to have Mr. Feraco and our Whitman students visit and answer all their technology questions!