Fourth and fifth grade students at Cornerstone School in Birmingham and Hilltop School in Shelby County collaborated with Phi Theta Kappa honor students from Jefferson State Community College on an exciting and unique cultural project on September 23.
“Digscovery” got underway with students from Cornerstone and Hilltop taking a joint tour of the Birmingham Museum of Art on to learn about different cultures from the past.
“We cannot wait for this project to unfold!” said Jefferson State Associate Dean and Phi Theta Kappa advisor Liesl Ward Harris. “What an awesome opportunity for these elementary students to get an idea of what it feels like to be archeologists, historians, and curators.”
Over the course of the next few months, each class will then develop and create a culture from the ground up and will make artifacts representing that culture. The “Digscovery” project is designed to encourage students to think about how different people represent themselves and reflect on similarities and differences of things such as customs, clothing, items, etc. culturally.
The students will later visit the partner school and bury their respective artifacts on campus and then hold an Excavation Dig Day. Based on what they find, each class will try to interpret the culture they discover. Students will make presentations about what they “digscovered” at a celebration in their honor to be held at Jefferson State in November. Throughout the project, Jefferson State’s students will serve as tour guides, consultants, and advisors for the youngsters.
“We also believe this is a fun way to expose them to concepts like understanding and acceptance of differences and learning to celebrate similarities at a young age,” said Harris. “More importantly, we know they’ll learn more about each other and about themselves as well.”
This project is made possible through the generous support of Jefferson State’s Community Outreach Division, Cornerstone and Hilltop Schools, and a grant from Wells Fargo.
Phi Theta Kappa is the international honor society of two-year schools and is the largest, most active honor society in the world. Jefferson State’s award-winning Beta Lambda Delta chapter, located on the Shelby-Hoover Campus, looks forward to working with the students from Cornerstone and Hilltop and thanks all project sponsors for their amazing support.
