Web Design Students Put Techno Twist on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving. Meet the 21st century.

In Debra Schmid’s class at the Frederick V. Pankow Center, high school students are studying Thanksgiving, but there isn’t a history text in sight.

Using Internet research and their newly acquired knowledge of HTML, these web design students are giving the almost 400-year-old Thanksgiving tradition a decidedly 21st century update.

 “We celebrate (Thanksgiving), without maybe understanding why,” Schmid said. “So with a fun project, we can make an assignment (and holiday) come alive.”

In each of Schmid’s web design classes, students were given the task to build an “authentic, working, linking, information-giving website” that fellow teens could use to learn a bit more about Thanksgiving.

L’Anse Creuse High School sophomore Alivia Segal used video, pictures and a quiz to add an element of interactivity to her site that others could “have fun with and learn.” 

Fellow classmate and L’Anse Creuse High School North sophomore Alda Perez, used his knowledge of Photoshop to make his site pop with pictures rather than words.

And although each student had to follow certain guidelines of the assignment, their own design strengths, creativity and understanding of Thanksgiving played an essential role in the final website.

With the websites completed and turned in for grading, students were able to celebrate their accomplishment with food and a little old school, or perhaps pre-school fun, before leaving for Thanksgiving break.

“I realize everybody is a little old for this,” Schmid said, referring to the colorful handmade pilgrim and Native American party hats included in the celebration, “but to dramatize the celebration is why we went through dressing as Native Americans, and pilgrims. This day was meant to give an idea to other students that web design can be fun. It adds to the ambiance of the day.”

An elective, the Pankow-based class is open to students from 10 local high schools, including those in L'Anse Creuse, New Haven and Chippewa Valley.

To view other websites created by Schmid's web design class, visit http://pankowebs.com/.