Hood River New School Students Brings History Alive For Community Learning Day
Parents, family, and friends view a student created documentary during last weeks community learning day event at Hood River New School. Photo: Cole Goodwin
By Cole Goodwin
Hood River, Ore., March 18, 2024 – Hood River New School hosted its annual student project expo on Friday March 15. This year the theme of the event was history and offered students a chance to share their learning with parents and community members.
Student projects included digital documentaries, dramatic performances, websites, and history dioramas on various topics from history including the history of mental healthcare in America, The Battle of Midway, the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, Tupac Shakur’s influence on the history of hip-hop, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Haitian Revolution, Women’s Hockey and much much more.
Alex Ulland, grade 7 presents his documentary on the Battle of Midway. Photo: Cole Goodwin
Students were encouraged to seek out turning points in history and use the project as a chance to understand history as it relates to the present day. This education method is meant to help students tackle real world challenges with a future focused lens in order to help them develop thier problem solving skills, resilience and compassion.
“They really had a chance to see history not in isolation but how history is still alive and still impacts things that are happening,” said Todd Dierker, a core teacher at Hood River New School.
A Look Into History
Students Judah Tsypin, grade 8, and Beckett Eaton grade 8, taking a moment to chat with CCCNews following the presentation of their project. Photo: Cole Goodwin
Students Judah and Beckett were a part of a team who presented on the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, in which the Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight killing all seven crew members aboard. (Readers may recognize Judah from when CCCNews interviewed him on the black hole video game he designed and presented at last year's event in order to demonstrate what he’d learned about interstellar space.)
Judah, who’s still very interested in space said they knew they wanted to do a project about the history of space but didn’t immediately land on Challenger until later in the process.
“We decided on Challenger mainly because of the abundant images and videos that we had access to because it was a well documented event and we thought we could make a really good documentary,” said Judah.
Indeed their ten minute documentary was accompanied by a 13 page bibliography in which they cited every photo, video clip, and source they used in the production of what may as well have been a professionally produced documentary.
For the team the harrowing tale of science, corruption and scientific progress paints a picture of a turning point in NASA’s history.
“I think the big lesson is when the publicity gets in the way of safety and science it doesn’t end well,” said Judah.
Beckett agreed, adding that this piece of history also speaks to a turning point in NASA history in terms of engineering, safety, whistleblowing ethics, communications, and group decision making. Beckett noted the importance of cooperation and clear communication between engineers and everyone involved in decisions to launch.
“Everyone who is involved in creating these rockets should have a voice to stop it,” said Beckett.
Liv Sommerset, a 7th grader at Hood River New School delivers a live performance on the history of mental healthcare in America. Photo: Cole Goodwin
Liv, delivered a passionate performance art piece on the history of mental healthcare said she chose the topic for a few reasons.
“So, let me give you some background here. A year and a half ago I started writing a book. I'm very creative and I like writing. So I’m writing a book about this bad hospital and it’s a murder mystery. The idea just popped into my head one day and I really liked it. So then I was like man I should create a second book. So I was thinking, "What would this one be about?” said Liv.
She landed on the idea of her second book taking place in a mental asylum in 1989-1990. Then the history project came along and gave her an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone: do research for her book and get school credit for her discoveries.
Liv wasn’t afraid to learn about this chapter in American history.
“It didn’t scare me at all,” said Liv.
“I just enjoy the process of learning and also doing things for my writing so that’s what piqued my interests,” she clarified.
Liv said that her takeaway from her project is that the current mental health care situation doesn’t exist in isolation but is a direct result of the history of mental health care.
Liv was able to both acknowledge the people who were hurt by the experiments and take a pragmatic view of the situation saying that without those who came before, we might still believe that mental illness was caused by demons or use bloodletting to treat mental illness.
“I think what you could take away from this is that the treatments were super inhumane and disturbing. However, they also granted us learning,” said Liv. “It’s horrible but really like without that stage where would be today?”
Judah Mann and Rye Hyde-Jones grade 8, present their history project on Tupac Shakur. Photo: Cole Goodwin
When Judah and Rye were asked what inspired them to do a history report on Tupac they responded that they chose the topic due to an interest both in music and the history of marginalized people in the United States.
“When I was choosing a topic it was the 50th anniversary of hip-hop and I was like I think I want to do something with hip hop,” said Judah.
“And he provided a voice for marginalized groups like people in poverty and African-Americans and people who have suffered from police brutality,” added Rye.
The event was charged with positivity as parents, teachers, and students bustled from place to place, celebrating learning and one another’s accomplishments in creating and producing their projects.
“Today is a sort of a culmination of celebration for them to come together and not only share with each other what they've done but to share it with their parents and family friends. And it really becomes a celebration of the school and a celebration of the type of learning that we're empowering students to do here… And it gives them practice and skills and presenting in front of a much larger audience,” said Dierker.
Perhaps equally as impressive as the work presented by students was the confidence with which they were able to present in front of thier peers and family.
Teachers shared that building confidence and self esteem is an important part of the culture of the school.
“We cultivate a culture here that is one about supporting and celebrating each other. Which allows the kids the freedom to just go for it. And put on accents and try out costumes and do goofy stuff as a middle schooler and not feel worried, instead people appreciate, and celebrate each other for what they've done,” said Dierker.
To learn more about Hood River New School visit HoodRiverNewSchool.org.
Support Local News
Available to everyone; funded by readers like you.
