Seniors at Bradford Area High School are having fun with the
state-mandated graduation project – one graduating senior can even
play with one aspect of her completed project.

Hillary Freeman of Bradford demonstrated the toys she made for
use at Crook Farm. After researching what children in the 1800s
used for games and toys, she went to work making wooden
replicas.

Her plan is to give the sets of toys to Crook Farm for the fifth
graders who attend the Bradford Landmark Society’s Annual School
Program to use during recess as part of their experience of
attending a day in school in the 1800s.

“The games they had out there were not those of the same time
period,” said Freeman, who is the Key Club president at the school.
“I thought that the 5th graders can use them – they can use the
same toys at recess.”

She said she came up with the idea after working at the Crook
Farm as part of being a member of the Key Club.

The games she made are a Jacob’s ladder, dominoes, Tiddlywinks,
and a Hoop’n Stick.

She explained that children of the 1800s were able to play with
the Jacob’s ladder game on Sundays because it was considered a
“religious toy,” based on the biblical Jacob who saw a ladder
leading from earth to heaven in a vision. It is made of small
wooden planks that are hinged together with a ribbon.

“I bought one and made my own replica,” she said. “The research
said people would practice using one in their free time because it
was so hard to play with.”

She also showed visitors how the toy would be used to conduct a
magic trick with a dollar bill and said that it could be used to
form different things such as a chair or a dog.

To make the dominoes, she had to drill the holes (with help from
her father) and paint them, but she said the hardest part was
figuring out all of the different variations that would appear on
them.

Another toy she demonstrated was the Hoop ‘n Stick, which she
said is easier than it looks to play with. The toy consists of a
hoop and a stick which is used to keep the hoop moving or rolling
along.

While Freeman demonstrated the wooden Tiddlywinks, she invited
fellow senior Greg Kessel to give the game a try. When he did, he
said, “This is hard!”

Of course, when you consider Kessel’s graduation project you may
wonder how he would think playing with Tiddlywinks is hard. He
built a computer for use in game design and animation. Actually, it
was his third such creation. He also had some help from his
father.

The purpose of the project was to demonstrate game design and
animation.

“I figured I’d build a computer to demonstrate them,” he
said.

He worked on the software using a three-dimensional environment
provided that would allow him to animate and design. The software
came in a demo version. He also works on map creation level
design.

Kessel then puts the maps out on the Internet for people to
download for use.

“I send them to people who run servers on the Internet,” he
added.

About building the computers, Kessel said they were “a couple of
small ones – nothing fancy.”

“This one (for the project) – we put a lot in. More of
everything. A dual case processor, two video cards, K power supply,
and four gigs of RAM,” explained Kessel to an impressed but
confused reporter. “It needed all that to be useful for game
editing”

He said he uses two screens or monitors, one for his tools and
the other for the work he does in design.

The construction of the machine started in December. He said a
lot of the time was spent waiting for the parts to come in, then to
put it together and work all of the bugs out.

For each graduation project a student works to complete comes
about 20 hours of community service or job shadowing, a research
paper, and a presentation and demonstration.

On his community service project, Ward Tanner worked with the
Future Farmers For America (FFA) chapter at the high school to
build a pavilion for the Rails to Trails people. The pavilion is
located in Westline.

“It was something simple, something I knew how to do,” said
Tanner of his community service project. As for his presentation,
he presented the work of a family farm.

“I took what I knew on the farm and put it into a presentation
and demonstration on how to use the equipment like tractors, rakes,
bailers – farm machinery,” he said.

The farm he is talking about is the Tanner farm, a dairy farm in
Smethport. He said it is a four-generation family farm.

His project consisted of a PowerPoint presentation that included
photos and also provided information on how to get a farming
business going or to keep one afloat.

“And how to make a profit,” added Tanner.

Tanner has two older sisters and one younger brother, but their
interest in working on the farm is not as strong as his own.

“I am kind of the one to take over. My brother is not into it
and my sisters moved on,” explained Tanner of his knowledge of the
farm and his future. “It’s something I’ve always planned on
doing.”

When students decide what they want to do for their graduation
projects, they are encouraged to work on something that interests
them.

According to David Ray, assistant principal, other projects
students have done include demonstrating therapeutic massage, dream
analysis, building furniture, placing a lift kit on a pickup truck,
and a research paper and study of Cleopatra.

“This is the second year of using this type of a format. It
allows the students to do something more than write a history
research paper,” said Ray of the 10-year-old state-mandated
project.

“A lot of them get something out of it, something to show,” he
added. “For some students, it can be one of their bigger
achievements.”