Carlin Park 5th-graders enjoy Trine party

Forty-two fifth-grade students from Carlin Park Elementary School in Angola visited Trine University for their annual spring party on May 26. 

The school’s Booster Club sponsors the party for fifth-graders each year. Usually they go to Crazy Pinz in Fort Wayne, but the club decided to stay closer to home this year since COVID-19 limited their ability to fundraise.

“This day ended up being much cheaper and much more fun for the students, and they didn’t have to drive an hour both ways on the bus,” said Wendy Yagodinski, who serves as treasurer for the Booster Club as well as chair of Trine’s Department of Computer Science and Information Technology.

The students began the day in Fabiani Theatre, where they were treated to popcorn and a showing of Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon” on the big screen. They then visited Trine’s virtual reality laboratory to learn and play with various augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality technologies, including Oculus Quest 2, Microsoft HoloLens and HTC Vive units.

“The highlight was getting to use the Google Earth app on the HTC Vive units, which allows the students to have a real, in-depth VR experience,” Yagodinski said. “A couple of the students were brave enough to try out the VR roller coaster and rock climbing!”

The group moved to the MTI Center for pizza, music and class awards for areas such as Most Likely to Succeed, Class Clown and Most Athletic, with winners receiving a certificate and a bag of candy. The day finished with bowling, a corn hole tournament and a tour of Trine’s esports arena.

“The students had a blast,” Yagodinski said.