NORMAL - One of the best places to sit at the SIT conference Saturday was on a newly built hovercraft.

Kids used shop vacuums, shower curtains, wood, and a little adult help to build the floating vehicles. They zoomed through hallways, giggling, as their crafts hovered about three inches above the floor.

"I was the lightest so I got to try first," said Brandon Bakewell, 9, a fourth-grade Tri-Valley student with Students Involved with Technology. "At first it made me a little dizzy. When it was balanced, it was really fun."

Students made the hovercrafts themselves, with a little help from Heartland Community College instructors and volunteers, and decorated them with their own computer-made logos.

Students will take the vehicles to their schools to be used in teaching math, technology, and recreation.

"We tried it out a couple of days ago, and got one to fly at 1½ feet high," said Rich Foley, a computer-aided drafting and machine tool instructor at Heartland.

The students made closer-to-the-ground versions for safety reasons.

Foley, who has been involved in the hands-on technology event for about five years, said it keeps growing, and more girls are taking part these days.

About 400 people attended the conference, which attracted students in third to 12th grades, said event director Kim Tavers.

The conference connected the latest technology with an ancient Asian art. Janice Sinn, a senior at Olympia High School in Stanford, used a twist on technology to teach origami, the art of Japanese paper folding.

"Every Friday we have an informal origami group at school. It's fun," she said.

Sinn combined the techniques of origami with a computer program and video demonstration to show about 30 people at a time how well they work together.

Megan Hosack, a Bloomington Junior High School student, used a computer program to bring to life a series of humorous photos of chickens.

The 60-odd workshops included ones on ballistic launchers, computer forensics, and making a movie from a game.

Seventh-grader Andrew Reynold and eighth-graders Evan Penn and Josh Brown, all of Washington, got a fresh taste of the challenges technology can provide when they had a glitch with their "3-D Animation for Dummies" session.

"I'm a computer guy," said 11-year-old Fox Creek student Wes Ellis as he tried out some of the activities. "I like going online and checking my e-mails, connecting with friends and seeing what's on reality TV."

Other topics covered at the event included designing video games on the Internet, finding and using game codes, and building your own Web forum.

Both adults and students participated in most of the events.