2nd Grade Columbus School students turned their Social Studies classrooms into time machines for their Historian Projects, presented to parents on November 9.

The Historian Project is a research project in which the second grade students gather information about the past and compare it to the present.

“The project is about long ago and today, the students need to do comparisons and connections. The thing that they have to do is bringing a poster, bringing some pictures and having 3 teaching points,” Juan Pablo Sanchez, second grade assistant, said.

The Historian Project requires students to demonstrate understanding and compare and contrast important events and advances from the past with the present. Not only have students learned about the topic, but also learned to make presentations in English, work in teams, negotiate, organize, and compromise.  

“I think that this project is awesome because it is the first project that we do and work with teams of 3, 2 or you can work by yourself, ”  Pablo Andres Tabares, 2A student, said.  

The second graders started to study their topics broadly, then step by step narrowed down their research to one of four topics: school, communication, play, and transportation.

“We have been working with the librarian about how to find information online, how to find information in books and how to find information from videos or other sources,” Shannon Wilker, 2A teacher, said.

The project, which lasted several weeks,  also involved research outside of school. The students  interviewed grandparents and brought photos from home.

“We used what our grandparents taught us about their lives and they gave us some pictures,” Elisa Isaza, 2A student, said.

One of the project’s goals is to involve family. Not only will parents and grandparents be involved through interviews, but as a final step, second graders will present on November 9th on the art gallery. 

“I saw the work of the girls and how excited they were preparing their projects. They read, researched, practiced at home and that caused me lots of happiness that they were so prepared,” Claudia Lopez, second grade mother, said. 

As the students worked to compare the past with the present, they also learned to develop opinions about their topics,  giving them new perspectives.

“A lot of them when we did some online chats about that they actually said they would prefer to live long ago because they got to play more outside, play with their friends and have cool toys and not always be on their phones and iPads,” Shannon Wilker, 2A teacher, said.