PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE NEW CASTLE AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT
When students returned to classes last fall at George Washington Intermediate School in Pennsylvania’s New Castle Area School District, they wanted to make something to honor a child they never had the chance to meet.
Over several weeks, the third, fourth and fifth graders in this 3,000-student district worked in the Matt’s Maker Space learning room at the school to create a Christmas tree and display that were showcased at a local Festival of Trees in late November. The schoolwide project was in honor of the room’s namesake, Matt Conover, who was 12 when he died from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2002.
“Developing and building these things—the village under the tree that was entirely illuminated, the train that went around the village—was a chance for their creativity and talents to come alive in that…
