School News – October 23

Teacher, students win bicentennial map project

A bicentennial map project developed by a Central Middle School teacher and his students has won an award from the Indiana Historical Society.

Central Middle School eighth-grade teacher Alan Birkemeier and his students won the 2017 Outstanding Bicentennial Collaborative Project award for a bicentennial map project that allows local students to see Indiana’s history. The award recognizes a bicentennial-related event or history project implemented in 2016.

Birkemeier’s Incredible History Map was among four projects that were selected by a judging committee. He started the project by randomly assigning students to research the history, people and tourism of one of Indiana’s 92 counties.

Students used their findings to create a brochure, a graph, a presentation and a to-scale map of the county, with one mile equaling three inches, the release said. Once assembled, the county maps fit together to create a basketball court-sized map.

The map will be recognized at the Indiana Historical Society’s annual Founders Day dinner Nov. 6 at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center in Indianapolis.