歪歪漫画

TWO HARBORS, Minn. -- Spooky skeleton heads were used in tombstone decorations made by Two Harbors High 歪歪漫画 sixth graders over the past month.

Every year, Nadine Uremovich, a science teacher and Halloween enthusiast, teaches her students about engineering by having them design their own wooden tombstones with lights and moving parts. Uremovich said the only rules for the design were that they had to be PG and have little or no black paint.

Uremovich said the students learned how to use screwdrivers and drill holes. They also learned how to measure the nuts and bolts to find the right wrenches to use. She said they talk about electricity, motors, levers and fulcrums during this project because each tombstone has to have some sort of motion.

鈥淭his project gives them a really cool hands-on project to do, and Halloween is so engaging for kids,鈥� Uremovich said. 鈥淥ne of the things that I鈥檝e really learned is that they are so proud of themselves that they built something like this.鈥�

The students put their creativity to use with their tombstones. There was a tombstone with a cow named Bessy being abducted by a UFO and one dedicated to Pennywise, the clown from the book and movie, "It." Winter Byrns said her group decided to make a change after they saw the other designs.

鈥淲e originally had red paint as blood dripping down from the top but we saw that a lot of groups had blood, so we painted it green and made it look like green slime coming down,鈥� Winter said.

She said the hardest part of the project was collaborating as a group.

鈥淭here were some disagreements but we worked them out,鈥� Winter said.

Kaylee Loisel said working together was also hard for her group. She said there was a disagreement about the theme. The girls wanted Pennywise. The boys wanted 鈥淪tar Wars.鈥� The girls won because the boys were absent the day a theme had to be decided, Kaylee said.

Emma McDonald, 12, said her group actually worked really well together.

鈥淢y favorite part was the collaboration,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e all helped each other out with the project and we each had our own jobs to do.鈥�

Their tombstone had a skeleton cowboy with a moving horse as well. Emma said the hardest part about the project was putting in the screws.

鈥淚鈥檝e used a screwdriver before, but it was just harder to do than I thought,鈥� she said.

Lilly Johansen, 11, said her group鈥檚 biggest challenge was getting their skeleton's hand to move.

鈥淭he hand is just so heavy it has broken string and fishing line,鈥� Lilly said.

Thursday, before the tombstone was transported away, the fishing line broke again and Lilly鈥檚 group brainstormed with Uremovich on how to prevent it from breaking again. Their solution was to put a screw in the board to stop it from going too far down toward the ground. Lilly used a drill to make a hole for a screw.

鈥淭his is the first time our hand hasn鈥檛 broken,鈥� Lilly said, adding the screw had seemed to solve their problem.

Each group was given eight days to complete their tombstones. Once they were done they were given two to three days to create a presentation explaining what they did each day, what they learned, what were the hardest parts of the project and their favorite parts. The students practiced giving their presentations Thursday before the tombstones were picked up by Uremovich鈥檚 husband in their vintage Cadillac hearse.

The hearse transported the tombstones to Uremovich鈥檚 house where they will be added to her Halloween decorations for everyone to see.