History Project

As part of their Minnesota History curriculum, sixth grade social studies students in our community do a big history project on a place in our city.  They do research, learn about the history of the site they choose,  and then create a trifold display.  They might even do a presentation for extra credit, if I remember correctly.  Sometimes they get to go on a “tour” as a class and visit the places that their classmates researched.  There are SO many interesting historic places in our town, so I have always appreciated that they do this project.  (Not to mention that it requires the compilation of a lot of learning skills to do it successfully.)

Mr. Sneaky Pants’ project was due this week.  His (sometimes haphazard) approach was quite different than his elder sister, who chose the Sky Harbor Airport when she was in sixth grade.  This kid chose to research Clyde Ironworks, which was a iron manufacturing industry that build heavy machinery, like whirley cranes.  There were some late nights over the weekend and during the beginning of the school week as the resident sixth grader began to put everything together for his project.  There might have been a bit of stomping and a bit of grouching, but in the end it all came together.  I even convinced him to fix a few grammatical errors.  The night before he had to turn it in, Mr. SP looked over at me and said, “Gee Mom, aren’t you going to appreciate tomorrow when we can clean all this mess off the table?”  Um, yes.  We were living with a lot of paper, glue, scissors, and craziness on the table.

A few years ago the Clyde Ironworks building was turned into a spacious restaurant and event gathering center.  It’s a fun place to eat at because the warehouse was built with gigantic windows to let in natural light and during the workday long ago, and there are lots of wide open spaces.  It was a great choice for Mr. SP’s project.  I think he really liked learning about it, even if the research was a bit taxing at times, and designing his trifold was, well, a bit challenging for this kid who is maybe not so visually organized.  I learned a lot just from reading his trifold board.

Best of all, perhaps, was the fact that the students were greatly encouraged to actually visit their research site.  That gave Mr. SP a great reason to convince me to take him across town on Saturday.  While we were there, my always-hungry kid, along with his always-hungry younger sister thought it was only prudent that they play a game on the giant chess board and that I buy them lunch.  It was fun to spend time with my middles, and somehow they also convinced me to order cannoli for dessert.  They ate it all.  As the waiter so accurately stated, “Those didn’t stand a chance, did they?”