On Monday, May 15th, seniors of Dr. S’s HIS 210 class arrived to school bright and early to prepare for our elementary school’s fourth-grade students to get an insight into Kentucky history in a fun and creative way: an interactive travel museum that took place on the WCHS track.

From Kentucky’s music, Monologues from Mary Todd Lincoln, Monopoly, and even Minecraft, our district’s fourth graders were left with a greater appreciation for our county and state. Our class spent all semester planning this project, from working out logistics to the final setup, it was all done by us students.

I had the chance of creating an interactive passport for the students to use to gauge their understanding and they were able to use questions from other exhibits to play my group’s game of Kentucky-opoly! It was amazing to see the effort put in by Woodford County High School students and how it paid off in seeing the elementary schooler’s enjoyment.

I am so proud of everyone in the class; we definitely had a rough start when creating the project, but the payoff was so worth it. Seeing the kids engaged in learning about our state’s history in an enjoyable way was so incredible. We really worked to make our project exhibits accessible from a fourth-grade perspective, and in a way had to put ourselves back in the shoes of our nine-year-old selves and what we would be interested in.

Eva Kate Probus, who worked alongside project leader Emily Brown to bring the museum to life, states, “I really enjoyed doing the Heart of Kentucky Museum. It was a great opportunity to invest in the elementary students of Woodford County and was a way to bond with my classmates. I think it helped me develop relationships that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. It was a great alternative to a final exam. The talent of my classmates was clear with so many of the exhibits!”