Ancient city building, exploring the Northwest Passage, and Reconstruction may seem like events from the past, but they are three topics some students have learned that have an impact on today’s society. Guided by our middle school history teacher, Mrs. Mary Conroy, our 6-8 grade have completed projects that tie the past to today.
Our 6th graders are studying ancient civilizations and recently created sketches that demonstrate how a farming community grows into a city. The project started with sketching their community’s water source, living area, and crops along a river. Then, based on their research, they enhanced their sketch to show growth, including irrigation, food storage, and basic government and religions. The project was a great introduction to critical thinking, engineering, and city planning. The students also gained a greater awareness of how their own hometowns grew over time.
The Northwest Passage and its explorers were discovered by our 7th graders. They had to pick an explorer, such as Cartier, Cabot, Hudson, or Verrazano, and map out a timeline of where each went as they traveled through the Canadian Artic Archipelago, and what the explorer accomplished along the way. They learned that these explorations laid the groundwork for further colonization of North America by European countries, and that the influence of those nations are still visible today in, especially, French Quebec in Canada.
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The 8th graders learned about the mission of the Freedmen’s Bureau. They worked in pairs and created a monument to its memory. They also had to draft a persuasive writing piece to a fictional philanthropist asking for donations to build their monument. One insight gained was that the legacy of the Freedman’s’ Bureau is alive today - Howard University and several other colleges were founded by the work of the Bureau.
All these projects connect the past to the present and give the students greater insight to the world around them, enabling them to be better educated citizens.
