Schultz Elementary School students prepared and presented research about influential people to staff, fellow students, and their parents Tuesday and Wednesday.
The second grade students began working on their projects in February, according to teacher Kirsten Cole, who added students were allowed to choose an influential person and then had to research what made them an important figure.
“They had to figure out what they had done to make the world a better place,” Cole said. “They created slideshows, wrote paragraphs, created a craft, and some students made additional pieces at home or came in with props.”
Cole said the project teaches students about a variety of subjects.
“This is a social studies, reading, and writing project for them,” she said. “They get to read and do research, write their paragraphs, work on their finalizing skills, and turning things into slideshows as well as presentation skills. The students get so excited to share what they’ve learned, and they get to be the teacher.”
Cole said she was excited to see students passionate about their subjects.
“You can tell by the way they’ve dressed up that they are taking pride in what they are doing,” she said. “There’s at least one part of the project that really shows their personality — the writing part, the crafting part, or the presentation part.”
Second grader Elizabeth Rose Port focused her project on artist Georgia O’Keeffe. Rose Port said she chose her because she enjoyed her work.
“I like art,” Rose Port said. “I like that she painted flower and included insects.”
Ethan Cooper said he chose his subject, Albert Einstein, because he really likes science and knew Einstein was a famous scientist.
“He created the Theory of Relativity,” Cooper said, adding he didn’t really understand what it was but enjoyed the project all the same. “I like that I got to work by myself and didn’t have to do it with a partner.”
Autumn Ferguson did her project about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She picked him because she didn’t know much about him.
“I thought it would be good for me to learn about him,” Ferguson said, adding her favorite part was making the paper version of King.
During the event, upperclassmen at Schultz came to see the projects. Fourth grader Kyler Doyle said she was very impressed, especially by Ellie Hess, who presented her research — in full costume — on teacher Anne Sullivan.
“I like that her presentation included a lot of the details,” Doyle said. “(Her project) was inspiration.”
Hess said she chose Sullivan because she worked with the deaf and the blind.
“My mother used to do that kind of teaching, too,” Hess said. “My favorite thing about her is that she used these hand signals (to communicate), and Helen Keller loved her.”
Hess presented her research about Sullivan in a period appropriate costume, which she got from Goodwill.
Jennifer Larrison, another second grade teacher whose students did the project, said she would like to keep doing the project year after year.
“Kids love it,” Larrison said. “The older kids love to come back. It’s great to have presentations, and (I like) how proud they are of their work.”
