Thanks to the financial support of the Bainbridge Rotary Club and members of the community, students at Hutto Middle School will now be able to learn with the help of state-of-the-art technology.

Members of the Rotary Club visited HMS on Friday afternoon to present the school with a 3-D imaging console, more commonly known as a “3-D Rover.” The Rover, created by ViziTech, U.S.A., uses technology to make learning more interactive and fun for students.

The device is similar to a slide show or overhead projector, except that the images are created in 3-D. Students can then wear the special 3-D glasses, and the images will appear to pop out or move around.

In addition, students can watch as the teacher “dissects” the image, and expands them into greater detail. For example, an image of a cell could be broken down into the different cell parts, such as the nucleus and mitochondria. Those parts can then be magnified, so the students can view them in greater detail.

Other lesson examples are looking at a model of the solar system, and focusing on the different planets, or watching how a combustion engine works by seeing the different “parts” actually appear to move.

The Rotary Club previously purchased one of the Rovers for Bainbridge High School, and it has been a large success. The full system is about $15,000, and most of those proceeds were raised during the club’s recent “Casino Night” fundraiser.

“On behalf of the 100-plus members of the Bainbridge Rotary Club, I would like to say it is an honor to be here today,” said Bo Jones, club president. “Ramsay Simmons Jr., Wesley Callahan, Julius Kwilecki, Herbert Nussbaum and Vance Custer Sr., who founded our club 77 years ago, probably never imagined that one day their Rotary Club would, this year, contribute over $35,000 to the youth of Decatur County.

“They certainly could not have imagined that a portion of that money would provide a device that could improve learning by projecting a 3-D image to each individual student, and that image could be manipulated in a way to foster understanding like never before.

“All of this is made possible through the hard work of our members and the support of our community and businesses, who contribute to Rotary throughout the year.”

Dr. Fred Rayfield, superintendent of the Decatur County Schools, thanked the club for its contributions to the county’s youth.

“On behalf of the school system, I want to thank the Bainbridge Rotary Club for their leadership and vision with this project,” he said.

HMS Principal Roy Mathews said his teachers and students would start using the new technology in their classrooms right away. In fact, some of the HMS students were already trying on their 3-D glasses the day it was delivered, even though the Rover hadn’t even been plugged in yet.

“I know that we are all very excited to have this technology at our hands,” he said. “Our teachers are definitely looking forward to what they can do with it.”