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Photos courtesy of Amy Prickett.
Cahaba Elementary fourth- and fifth-graders received an Alabama Bicentennial Schools grant for their project to create a virtual tour of Trussville history.
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Photos courtesy of Amy Prickett.
Cahaba Elementary students review historical records for their virtual reality tour of Trussville.
Cahaba Elementary School students are bringing Trussville’s historic past into the future.
In August 2018, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced the 200 Alabama Bicentennial Schools, each of which received a $2,000 grant to support a yearlong project designed to strengthen connections between campuses and their communities.
Launched by Gov. Ivey in December 2017, the Alabama Bicentennial Schools Initiative encouraged public, private and homeschool students and teachers to participate in the celebration of Alabama’s 200th anniversary of statehood in 2019.
In early 2018, all K-12 schools in Alabama were invited to submit a proposal that engages in outreach and improvement projects to connect their classrooms with their local communities.
From a pool of nearly 400 proposals, 200 schools were selected to be official Bicentennial Schools and receive grants to support the implementation of their projects.
Twenty-four fourth- and fifth-grade students from Cahaba Elementary School were selected to participate in the project.
“One of the core objectives of the bicentennial is to get Alabamians thinking about what makes our state special, and what they want it to be,” said Steve Murray, co-chair of the Bicentennial Commission’s Education Committee. “The terrific projects developed by the Alabama Bicentennial Schools will create opportunities for students to learn about the importance of community and to discover the ability they have to shape the future of their corner of the state.”
From that grant, the Trussville 360 project was born. The students spent one 45-minute class per week from October 2018 to May 2019 working on a virtual reality and interactive tour project that will teach history and information about Trussville.
Cahaba Elementary librarian Amy Prickett, technology integration specialist April Smith, and science and social studies teacher Jana Feild applied for the grant.
At the beginning of the project, students were taken on virtual tours using virtual reality headsets.
“We wanted them to have a good idea of what they would be creating,” Prickett said.
The class then focused on research. They perused books written by Trussville authors who also visited the class. They walked to Heritage Hall to learn from the Trussville Historical Society, as well as the Trussville Public Library to research primary sources.
“Once the research element was completed, groups formed story boards where they organized the research, decided on a location to take a 360 picture and wrote descriptions about the location,” Prickett said. “They also located pictures to add to the 360 tour. Finally, we jumped on a school bus and used our 360 camera to take pictures at those locations.”
Teachers are finalizing the editing process of the tour this summer to publish with a link that anyone can access and through Google Expeditions, a free app that will give people all over the world a tour of Trussville.
When all 200 schools’ projects are completed, three schools per congressional district will be designated Alabama Bicentennial Schools of Excellence. These 21 schools will participate in commemoration ceremonies in Montgomery on Dec. 14, the culmination of Alabama’s bicentennial.
“The Alabama Bicentennial celebration is about bringing communities together and getting all of our citizens involved,” Ivey said. “The schools being honored are a great representation of that goal.”
Cahaba Elementary School’s plan is to present the final Trussville 360 project as a gift to the Trussville City Council this fall.
“I’m so proud of our students’ product,” Prickett said. “They have worked hard to find interesting details that make Trussville unique. We hope those who view the tour will see its rich history, hometown appeal and optimism for the future.”
