The Pine Knob Elementary fifth graders? Explorer Wax Museum, Jan. 9, was a culmination of social studies and writing classes so far this year, said fifth grade social studies teacher Heidi Wright, who organized the event with writing teacher Kelly Mertz.
“We began this project in social studies class by learning about early explorers who explored North America,” Wright said. “Students studied where these early explorers explored, what they accomplished, and what motivated them to take a dangerous voyage into the unknown.”
They extended their learning in writing class by choosing an explorer they were interested in learning more about and researching to find out where they explored, what they were famous for, what motivated them to explore, what they discovered, etc.
“Students chose their own explorers and these explorers could come from any historical time period or part of the world,” Wright said.
In writing class, the students used their research to write a feature article and create and give a presentation about their explorer to their classmates. Finally, in social studies class, they used their research from their writing project to plan their costume, props, and oral responses to questions about their explorer to create the Explorer Wax Museum.
The goals of this project were for students to understand where explorers explored and what motivated them to do so, to apply and extend their social studies learning to an explorer of their choosing, to apply research and informational writing skills, to create a multi-dimensional project, with written component, oral presentation, and Wax Museum, and examine and understand the world, in the time period of, and from the perspective of their chosen explorer.
“At the Wax Museum, all the learning came together as students stepped inside an explorer and talked from his/her perspective,” the teacher said. “This step-inside routine allows students to develop a deep understanding of the motivations and accomplishments of these explorers.”
? Phil Custodio