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Learning history can be fun
Nevada, Mo. -- On Thursday the Vernon County Historical Society hosted the seventh annual Missouri History Day at the Bushwhacker Museum, the Nevada Community Center and the Old Jail.
The event was open to all Vernon County fourth grade students and more than 200 attended.
There were nine stations with various educational speakers who not only talked to the students, but gave them hands-on opportunities to experience 19th century Vernon County lifestyles.
These stations included Prairie Ecology with Missouri Department of Conservation education specialist Kevin Badgeley. He displayed grasses and animal hides that settlers used for survival. The children leaving this station were wide-eyed over the live king snake they got to touch.
Another, Bison Parts with Pam Myers, administrator with the Truman Birthplace State Historic Site, the Osage Indian Village State Historic Site and Battle of Carthage, detailed the importance of that animal to early peoples of this area. Students not only learned of all the various ways Native Americans used and depended upon bison, but they also had the opportunity to feel an actual bison hide.
Nathan Boone, aka Dakota Russell, a state park employee with the Nathan Boone Homestead State Historic Site, captured students' imaginations by retelling history through a first-person viewpoint. Russell drew the students into the past with vivid tales and detailed displays of early life in Missouri.
At the 1800s Clothing station Cyndi Cogbill, interpretive resource specialist from the Prairie State Park, let both boys and girls model clothing. As Cogbill explained the many layers of clothing worn by early settlers, the children giggled and asked detailed questions about how fashion overshadowed practicality.
A one-room schoolhouse re-enactment featured Chanda Reiger, interpretive resource specialist from Prairie State Park. With chalk and slates, today's students experienced some of the difficult schoolwork their great-grandparents may have known.
Station six told the story of famed scientist and educator George Washington Carver with help from representatives from the George Washington Carver National Monument. Here the students also got to experience first hand the art of scrubbing laundry on metal scrub boards using lye soap.
At the Bushwhacker Jail and Sheriff's Home, guides Michael Morris, Dodi Chew and Charlene Sweet led students through the building and its history.
Children's games with activity leaders Peggy Pyle and Janet Morris proved very popular, as the women got the children involved in races and tests of skill.
Kiowa storyteller Ron McMillian, a living history interpreter, took the students into his Kiowa 'home' and told them, through stories, about Native American lifestyles and beliefs.
Around noon the students, volunteers and presenters enjoyed their lunches and chatted about the morning's experiences and about what the afternoon sessions would hold.
It takes coordination, cooperation and dedication to pull this creative event all together each year.
Organizers said the county-wide educational event is so effective as a learning tool that other counties and even other states are adopting the Vernon County Historical Society's original program for their own students.
Bushwhacker Museum coordinator and Missouri History Day organizer Terry Ramsey said, "This is year number seven for this event. Our first class of fourth grade students are now sophomores in high school."
With the popularity and success of the program, organizers anticipate that the Vernon County Historical Society will continue to provide all Vernon County fourth grade students with a chance not only to learn about history, but to experience it for themselves.