Knowledge on display at Nova Creativity Fair
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 months, 2 weeks AGO
From left: Olivia Valdez, Leyla Garza and Cadence Hesse tell the story of the Titanic to visitors to the Nova Creativity Fair Monday. The three are in fifth grade at Peninsula Elementary School.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Emma Houvener, left, and Harper Jones explain non-Newtonian fluids at the Nova Creativity Fair.
Fifth-graders Andy Beloborodnyy, in robot suit, and Kyle Duong, in orange, show what they’ve learned about artificial intelligence at the Nova Creativity Fair.
Families and classmates check out the displays at the Nova Creativity Fair at Knolls Vista Elementary School Monday.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | May 21, 2026 3:25 AM
MOSES LAKE — Some of Moses Lake‘s highly capable students showed what they’re highly capable of at the Nova Creativity Fair at Knolls Vista Elementary School on Monday.
“For this end-of-the-year project, the kids all get to decide who they want to work with and what topic they want to research,” said Cathy Lane, who teaches the Nova program for the Moses Lake School District. “They’ve done this big research project, and then they come to present (it at) a fair. The parents and community members will come around and ask them questions about what they’ve learned.”
The students had fairly free rein in their choice of topics. Lane said. There were scientific, historical and technological displays ranging from non-Newtonian fluids to the Loch Ness Monster. Each display had at least one interactive element for guests to check out, and a wall of facts, pictures and diagrams relating to the topic.
Peninsula Elementary School third-graders Olivia Valdez, Leyla Garza and Cadence Hesse had a model of the Titanic, with the ship’s bow and smokestack made of cardboard, a papier-mache iceberg, life vests and a backdrop of the ocean. The three, wearing sailor hats, explained perhaps the most famous shipwreck in modern history.
“There were 2,200 people on board, and during the crash, 1,500 people died,” Olivia said. “So that means there were only 700 people who survived the crash. It set sail on March 31, after three years in construction, and on April 13, it sank at 3:30 a.m. The wreck was found in 1985 lying 3,700 meters below the surface, thanks to a top-secret U.S. Navy mission.”
The display took a week to make, the girls said; the iceberg alone was a two-day project.
Fifth-graders Andy Beloborodnyy, dressed in a boxy robot costume, and Kyle Duong had a display on artificial intelligence.
“AI can generate text, music and code, and art that could go for $340,000,” Andy said. “That’s a lot. The global AI market is going to surpass $1 trillion in economic value by 2030. And advanced AI can create children AI, so it can code another AI.”
“Meteorologists use AI to analyze large amounts of data,” Kyle added.
The Nova program has served highly-capable students since 1978, according to the MLSD website. Third- through fifth-grade students are bused to the class one day a week. There are about 75 students in the program this year, Lane said.
“(Kyle) told me this year, ‘Mom, fifth grade is so easy,’” said Kyle’s mom, Jenny Duong. “He looks forward to this class because it’s more challenging to him. It’s got him thinking … outside the box. Rather than ‘Five times five is 25,’ they ask, ‘How many ways can you get to 25? What different solutions are there?’”
Emma Houvener, left, and Harper Jones explain non-Newtonian fluids at the Nova Creativity Fair.
Fifth-graders Andy Beloborodnyy, in robot suit, and Kyle Duong, in orange, show what they’ve learned about artificial intelligence at the Nova Creativity Fair.
Families and classmates check out the displays at the Nova Creativity Fair at Knolls Vista Elementary School Monday.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
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Quincy Police retirements leave big shoes to fill
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Big fun on a small scale
Wheat Land Communities’ Fair opens Thursday
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair isn’t as big or as flashy as some of the county fairs around central Washington, but the folks who keep it going like it just the way it is. “It’s somewhere you can go and get an old-time traditional feeling, and you’re comfortable letting your kids roam the grounds and experience all that it has to offer,” said Board Member Lori Williams. “It’s more of a feeling than (one) specific thing,” The fair starts Thursday in Ritzville and runs through Sunday. Starting Friday, the 56th Ritzville Rodeo will take place alongside the fair at the rodeo grounds. This year the entertainment budget was expanded, Williams said, to be able to offer more fun that’s covered by the cost of admission. For the kids, there’s face painting, balloon art, Lego crafts, races, contests and games. Children can also ride on a little train towed around the fairgrounds behind a tractor.