Yesterday U.S. Jones Elementary School held its first ever Geography Fair. Principal Tony Speegle had the idea to change the format of this year’s fair from science to geography.

“We had lots of reputation in the science projects over the years and wanted to change the identity of this year’s event to geography.

Geography is also very important to the development of the children’s overall knowledge,” Speegle said.

U. S. Jones teacher and fair coordinator Mary Stuedeman really likes the change that Speegle instituted. She has been involved in the fair for over 10 years now. She also thinks that the children will really learn a lot about other countries and states by participating in the event.

“It was Mr. Speelge’s idea to change the science fair into a geography fair this year. He wanted the children to learn about geography and to improve their overall knowledge of states and countries,” Stuedeman said.

Stuedeman said that the rules for this year’s fair were a little different, the children had to choose a state or country to go a project on. She also said that Florida, Texas, Hawaii and the country of China were favorites among the children.

“We had over 400 projects turned in from the third to the fifth grades,” she said.

There were 144 projects from the third grade and 172 projects from the fourth grade, and 152 projects from the fifth grade. Stuedeman said that the fair this year was excellent overall and she was very pleased with the results.

“The students really did a good job on their projects. Overall the projects looked great,” Stuedeman said.

U.S. Jones teacher and fair co-coordinator Penny Standford agreed with Stuedeman that this year’s event was excellent. She would like to thank the parents for their involvement in the projects.

“We appreciate all the parents involvement in these projects. It really shows in the caliber if the projects that were on display,” Standford said.

Residents of Demopolis who volunteered their time did the judging of the event.

Anna Margaret Jones, a fifth grader won the overall champion with her project that was based on the country of China. Jones received a $100 savings bond and a trophy from the Commercial Bank of Demopolis.