College English students writing and creating profiles

High school seniors in Todd Helms' college English class are currently working on a unique project, writing and creating profiles using social media as their platform.

The assignment accomplishes the requirements for a University of Wyoming College 1010 initiative that requires a project completed using digital or electronic means.

Helms said the students are using different resources for the project and skills they may not have tapped before.

"This is pretty much student facilitated," Helms said. "I gave them the information and then sat back and let them do their thing. It is really student centered."

Each of the students in the class are writing about something they're interested in. The topics range from background on Gebo to changes in the oil industry in Wyoming and the wild Mustangs of Wyoming and Colorado. One student is exploring the psychology behind female serial killers, while another is looking into the death of JonBenet Ramsey.

"The main focus of the project is to get the students to understand how to use social media effectively," Helms said. "It's definitely 21st Century teaching, showing them this 'fun' stuff they use every day can actually benefit them. The game has changed and we have to keep up."

Briefly, here are some of the projects the students are researching:

Rhett Richmond: Kinnear, WY; "My grandparents are from Kinnear," Richmond said. "The town started with a church and all the supplies were brought in by a man named Kinnear. It's been hard finding people to talk to in Kinnear since most of them don't work there."

Caleb DeCroo: Exchange Student in France; "My mom was an exchange student to France," DeCroo said, "so I'm writing about her different experiences over there and telling her stories."

Ryan Bleak: Gebo, WY; "I knew Gebo was close so I can get information on it," Bleak said. "I'm fascinated that it was once such a booming place and now it's just a ghost town."

Logan Bartholomew: 40 Years of Change in the Oil Field; "I've been talking a lot with my dad," Bartholomew said. "He was in the oilfield for a long time and he thinks the biggest change he's seen has been with the Environmental Protection Agency. You know, in the 80's it was profitable; not so much, now."

Taylor Nutall: Mustangs of Wyoming and Montana; "I'll be making a Facebook page about my project," she said. "I've found, through my research with the Bureau of Land Management, that the Mustangs are most closely related to gaited horses."

Kaylee Smith: Aileen Wuornos, Female Serial Killer; "I'm really interested in the psychological stuff," Smith said. "What was in her mind? Actually, I was amazed she confessed in the end to 'keep from burning in hell'. I'm doing mine as a first-person blog, like it's from her point of view."

Trey Davis: Steve Gleason, ALS; "Gleason played in the NFL for the Saints," Davis said. "He was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gherig's Disease). The hardest part is finding out what keeps him going. He goes about his day the same way as he did before, with a surprisingly positive attitude."

Josh Burrows: FBI in Kirby; "Did you know the FBI did an investigation in Kirby?" Burrows said. "Someone overheard a guy talking about taking out President Obama and apparently decided to call the FBI. They took it as a threat and actually came here and interrogated the guy who made the comment."

Dreama Thorpe: The Old Thermopolis Hospital; "The old hospital was a lot bigger than our current hospital," Thorpe said. "Lots of people wish we still had the old hospital. I've been able to use the county museum for a lot of my research, but I've had a hard time finding people to talk with who were actually there and saw how it was."

Chandra Maddock: Depression; "I know a couple of people who are fighting depression," Maddock said, "and I wanted to know what it was like. I wanted to know more, personal views as well as medical views. Did you know it can be genetic?"

Hannah Weyer: JonBenet Ramsey; "I've been using Instagram and Facebook to gather comments from other people," Weyer said. "I put theories out there and let other people voice their opinions on it. I post photos of the crime scene and provide lots of details and questions. I was really surprised the killer had all kinds of time to kill her. There are just lots of things that don't add up."

Helms said, once the projects are completed, he plans to publish the projects online so the community can see what the students have done and how much work has gone into the lesson.