Thanksgiving parade focus of Upper St. Clair educational project
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Third-grader Molly Biedrzycki shows the stop-action animation she created in class.
Fourth-grader Joanna Jalali is drawing on the Food Network's "Chopped" for her project.
The Food Network's "Cupcake Wars" serves as the theme of Noshi Dabas' project.
Third-graders Anthony DiPiazza, left, and Vinny Falsetti work on their balloons.
Third-grader Josh Beitler stands behind his creation.
Grace McDonough works on her balloon.
Nicholas Volpatt's project
Barbara Helmeci consults with Robert Elliot on his project.
A classic episode of “Seinfeld” has Elaine’s boss Mr. Pitt aspiring to anchor a balloon tether during Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. In Upper St. Clair, his real-life counterpart is teacher Barbara Helmeci.
“Who knows what I want to be when I grow up?” she’ll ask her Baker Elementary School students, and third-grader Molly Biedrzycki is among those who know the answer.
“A Macy’s balloon designer!”
Well, Helmeci will admit, she might not quite have the talent for that particular task. Being able to participate in the parade, though, would scratch an item off her bucket list.
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Barbara Helmeci consults with Robert Elliot on his Wildlife Conservation Society-themed float project.
“So I’ve challenged these guys that someday, they actually have to be the CEO of Macy’s, so that they can come and find me, and have me hold a balloon.”
The department store’s traditional Thanksgiving extravaganza does provide an educational opportunity for third- and fourth-graders in the School-Wide Enrichment Program at Baker.
This year, the students are working on a Macy’s-themed project to hone their engineering and problem-solving skills by designing and building scale models of parade floats, with accompanying balloons, to be displayed in a stop-motion-animation video. Upper St. Clair High School junior Dina Leyzarovich has been working with the students to teach them the technique.
“One of the components that they all have to incorporate is that their float and their balloon must have moving parts,” Helmeci explained. “So as we do the stop-motion animation, they’ll be able to demonstrate how it moves.”
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Fourth-grader Nicholas Volpatt tests his NASA-themed float.
The fourth-graders are working on the floats, with the assignment to have them represent certain entities in which the students are interested, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or the Food Network shows “Chopped” and “Cupcake Wars.”
Robert Elliot chose the Wildlife Conservation Society – based, like Macy’s, in New York City – with an elephant as the chief design element.
“They are working to save elephants in the African plains and all over the world,” he said about the organization. “People will poach them for their tusks and the ivory.”
His interest in conservation was spurred by a family trip to South Africa, where his father was born, and visiting a wildlife sanctuary.
“We saw that most of the rhinos were de-horned and the elephants were de-tusked, because they didn’t want the poachers to come and kill them,” Robert explained.
Back at Baker, his third-grade fellow students are making faux Mylar balloons out of laminated aluminum foil, with themes drawing from the likes of the Minecraft video game series, Lego-brand toys and M&Ms’ colorful candy characters.
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Third-grader Grace McDonough shows the balloon on which she has been working.
Molly’s is the novel with accompanying feature film “A Dog’s Purpose.”
“I was going to make little Lego people hold onto the strings,” she said about her balloon. “But I don’t know how it’s going to float. Maybe we’ll need to use straws to attach on the inside of it so they can hold it up better.”
She also is eager to demonstrate the stop-action video she made in class featuring characters made of clay.
“I do it at home sometimes, too, and I use Lego people,” she said.
Her teacher emphasizes the practical aspects of the project.
“You want to ground their knowledge in the real world, so that their engineering design challenge isn’t just about building something pretty,” Helmeci said. “It’s really about identifying something that they can solve a problem within the real world.
“We even start in kindergarten with design challenges, posing a problem and giving them a variety of ways to solve it,” she explained. “And that becomes what’s really important, their own path to making it work, or not work. Because sometimes you have an ‘epic fail,’ and that’s a valuable lesson, too.”