Tecumseh Middle School students learn local history and science

For fifth graders at Tecumseh Middle School (TMS), learning is more than just sitting at a desk reading a textbook. Students in Stacy Whelan and DeAnne Russell’s classrooms have found the connection between history and science right outside the windows of their classrooms.

A current fifth grade social studies unit focusing on Native Americans was tied in with the science topics of sustainability and natural resources. First, the students walked to the Tecumseh Area Historical Museum on Tuesday, Nov. 10, for a presentation about the local tribes who lived in Tecumseh.

Students then traveled with their teachers to Indian Crossing Trails Park off Burt Street to see the Native American dancing ground/council grounds for local tribes, which are both located just inside the park. Mickey Alvarado, editor of The Tecumseh Herald and local expert on Native American legends and history, led the students on a walk highlighting these places of historical and religious significance.

“We’ve been working hard to do more project-based learning,” said Whelan.

“Being out of the classroom gives the students a different perspective and fills in the gaps,” Russell said.

Many of the students did not know Native American culture was so prevalent in the Tecumseh area. “We didn’t realize Indians lived right here,” Whelan said. “Going to the park made it real.”

For some of the fifth graders, this was the first time they had ever been inside Indian Crossing Trails Park. Hearing the story of the white deer from Alvarado was a high point for the kids.

They were also intrigued about the grave of a Native American warrior from the 1600s being discovered at Tecumseh Park, locally known as The Pit. “The students really got into the whole idea of the burial grounds,” said Whelan.

The unit ends with students making recommendations on sustainability at TMS. “We ask the kids how can they make the campus greener,” Whelan said.

Students from past years suggested recycling the Styrofoam trays from the cafeteria. One student even figured out a way to have a hydroponics area in the art room where vegetables could be grown.

“They come up with all kinds of great ideas,” said Russell.

Whelan and Russell will also combine science and social studies on a future unit centered around the Underground Railroad. Russell will present the science of astronomy and how escaping slaves traveled north using the North Star and the Big Dipper constellation to guide them across unfamiliar terrain to freedom.

The students will go on a field trip to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit. A person who knew Emmett Till is scheduled to be a guest speaker at TMS for the fifth graders.

Till was a 14-year-old African American from Chicago who was murdered in Mississippi for flirting with a white cashier. His murder was considered a mobilizing force for the Civil Rights Movement in 1955.

Students will also go to a planetarium to view important constellations as they appeared to the traveling slaves.