DATE: Saturday, March 15, 1997              TAG: 9703150424

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY KENNAN NEWBOLD, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   42 lines

CHILDREN SHOW OFF SKILLS AT HIGH-TECH COMPETITION

More than 500 technology-minded youngsters will make their mark on the computer world today during this year's Great Computer Challenge.

The annual competition at ODU's Webb Center challenges students in kindergarten through fifth grade to demonstrate their skills in various computer applications like graphic arts and desktop publishing.

``Kindergarteners might have to draw a picture of the beach using a graphics program, while older students might be asked to do something like design a logo and a newsletter masthead,'' said Brian Callahan, director of interactive technology for the Consortium for Interactive Instruction, co-sponsors of the challenge.

And no one doubts they can do it.

Matthew Gurvich, a third-grade teacher at Ocean Lakes Elementary School and coach of the school's junior division team, said some of his students appear bored with the school's simpler programs.

``Their interests rise with the more sophisticated programs,'' he said. ``As the younger kids get older, they'll know more than the fifth-graders now do.''

Young students' growing interest in computers is apparent to Callahan, who said the number of teams competing has just about tripled in three years.

``In 1994, the entire competition had only 150 teams. This year, in the junior division alone there are 175 teams,'' he said.

Participating schools can send only one team per category. Students compete in teams of three. When they arrive, they set up their computers, are assigned a task, and then have a specific amount of time to develop solutions to various problems and display them on the screen.

Callahan thinks the challenge is an important and effective way to prove computers' usefulness, even to children as young as the ones competing.

``Computers are going to be in their lives,'' he said. ``It's a skill that they need to deal with. Computers are a fact of life now.''

Vanessa Werries and Tatiana Stevenson, fifth-graders at Gurvich's school, said they are nervous and excited about competing today. Both have had an interest in computers since they were in third grade.

``I think we have a 60 percent chance of winning,'' said Stevenson.

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