The FIFA World Cup is in full swing in Kansas City, and local students are bringing the festivities to the classroom — with the help of custom animatronics.
About 25 eighth graders from Maple Park Middle School in the North Kansas City School District spent the last two weeks of summer school researching countries with base camps in Kansas City.
Much like the World Cup, the project took a lot of teamwork to animate, costume, voice and make backgrounds for different players. Students showcased their animatronics on Wednesday, with each player sharing information about their life and career — through students’ voices.
Eighth grader Connor Donnelly said his favorite part was programming his team’s animatronic. He said the project immediately made him think of the popular horror video game series “Five Nights at Freddy's,” which features mechanical puppets.
“It's just like game developing, but it's in real life,” he said. “If you're into playing games, I'd recommend at least giving it a shot.”
Connor said he wants to work on programming when he’s older, so the project gave him the opportunity to explore the field. The summer program through the district’s Future Ready Lab aimed to introduce students to their future high school’s Design, Innovation & Technology pathway.
Cammy Neth, the Future Ready Lab’s coordinator, said she wanted to work with students who had missed the opportunity to participate in the program as a fifth grader because it hadn’t yet been created.
Neth said the lab uses products from Garner Holt productions factory, which produces hundreds of animatronics for Disney Parks, Universal Studios, Chuck E. Cheese and other theme parks and attractions.
She said the animatronics help students learn from different areas of engineering, technology and art and prepare them for future opportunities in Kansas City.
“I want them to know that we actually need them, that people are turning more to us in education and saying, ‘Hey, can you get kids ready for what we need in that field?’” Neth said. “If I can be that connector for them between the interests that they have with the needs that our city has, and that's a win for our whole community.”
One of the showcase’s animatronics featured North Kansas City alum and Kansas City Sports Commission President and CEO Kathy Nelson for her role in bringing the World Cup to Kansas City.
Nelson, who was in attendance on Wednesday, said the showcase was emotional to watch.
"That's creativity at its finest, that's knowledge, that's everything STEM stands for, all in one package,” Nelson said, referring to the subjects of science, technology, engineering and math. “To know that the amount of work this took to get them to where they are today, they've got to be beaming as much as I'm beaming right now.”
Nelson said opportunities like Wednesday’s showcase show the legacy of the tournament in Kansas City, and students have this moment connected to the World Cup for the rest of their lives.
For Neth, a project based on the World Cup was a way to make learning more relevant for students who are already interested in soccer. She said students’ attendance rates during summer school reflected that.
“We know that when kids have authentic work to do, and they have the validation of people around them, that they're going to show up for that, and the opportunities that they experience far surpass anything they would have in a normal everyday classroom,” Neth said.
That reflects Connor’s experience. He said he believed his team’s animatronic of Nelson did her justice.
“It was pretty interesting,” Connor said. “I only missed one day (of summer school), because I was trying to miss as minimal as possible. The only reason I missed is because I missed my alarm, and I was not in the mood to get up at that point.”
