RMS students showcase projects
RUSSELLVILLE Middle school students shared their work during a history night featuring eighth-grade world history presentations and seventh-grade community service projects.
“We have been doing this project for multiple years through the Liberty Learning Foundation,” Skyler Kirchner, who teaches seventh- and eighth-grade world history, said, “but the world history presentations were new this year.”
The eighth-grade project grew out of class work and a partnership with instructional coach Lee Brownell.
Kirchner said the students used Google Earth, a digital mapping program, to explore locations around the world and build interactive presentations using maps and satellite images.
Students chose African trading kingdoms and built presentations that included geography, economy, religion, culture, trade, significant leaders and lasting impact.
Kirchner said students used features such as placemarks to mark locations, and the path and polygon tools to trace trade routes.
“For example, if they were trading gold, where did the gold originate and where did the gold end up?” he said.
“History is much more skill based than just memorizing something long enough to take a test and then forgetting about it,” Kirchner said, citing student responses as having been positive.
He said the seventhgrade community service projects also went well this year. Students were able to complete many of their projects at or around the school, which helped with scheduling and transportation challenges.
“All the kids had a trifold board to showcase,” Kirchner said. “You just get to see some of that creativity in the kids come out through this stuff.”
One project that stood out to him was called “Every Kid Counts.” He said the students worked alongside the special education students on activities and projects.
“It was just a really cool way of showing inclusion,” he said. “They got to spend time with those students and, in a way, be peer teachers.”
Kirchner said other groups focused on cleaning projects around the school and on promoting hygiene, especially with illnesses going around.
He said the servicelearning projects typically begin near the start of the school year and stretch across much of the year, while the world history presentation project lasted about two to three weeks.
Kirchner said community support for Russellville schools was evident in the turnout for the event.
“The community support at Russellville is unrivaled,” he said. “That’s in education, academics and sports. Our whole visitor side of our gym was packed with students and parents. You could barely walk through the hallways.”
