SANTA ANA : Lesson Poses No Problem for Students

Move over, Madame Tussaud.

Mary Troup’s fifth-grade class may have posed in costumes as do the figures in Tussaud’s famous London wax museum, but they were no mere figurines. They were there to educate their peers about America’s heritage.

Troup’s 30 students at the John Muir Fundamental School on Wednesday dressed up as Neil Armstrong, Benjamin Franklin, Sandra Day O’Connor and others to form their own American Heritage Wax Museum, complete with paper buttons for visitors to push to “activate” one-minute speeches on their characters’ lives.

“I think this kind of project makes those historical figures come alive for the kids,” Principal Betty Wagner said.

Troup got the wax museum idea from a seminar where she heard about a teacher who had coordinated a similar project. Her students were already studying American history, so she decided to use the subject to introduce the children to research methods and materials.

“We’re just doing it to help other kids, to help them learn about famous Americans, and mainly to get (students) going on research,” Troup said.

She let the students pick any person they wanted, either from history or literature, and told them to write the person’s biography. The students then used the biographies to write their one-minute speeches, which they rehearsed in front of parents and classmates. The students also designed a postage stamp collection to go with their costumes.

On Wednesday, groups of parents and students visited the temporary museum, inspecting the written biographies and pressing the red paper buttons on the floor to hear the speeches.

In a brown leather jacket, pale scarf and glasses, aviator Amelia Earhart, played by 10-year-old Sarah Reyes, talked about her career and pointed out on a plastic globe the area where she disappeared on her around-the-world flight in 1937. Reyes said she chose Earhart because of Earhart’s character.

“I like her because she was big on women’s rights,” Sarah said. “She was brave. She was a daredevil. She wasn’t scared. She was capable of anything a man could do.”

Classmate Jonathan Fernandez, 11, as inventor Thomas Edison, spent his “off” time in a pose bent over a light bulb, with various tools around him. Ashley Stuvick, 10, portrayed Phillis Wheatley, America’s first black poet.

Danny Skintek, 11, worked with partner Gilbert Melendez, 10, in one of two team efforts. During the breaks, the two boys traded their roles, fake mustache and all, as the brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright, of Kitty Hawk fame.

“The kids did everything,” Troup said. “They helped each other by editing each others’ speeches. I tried to have them do their own problem solving, so they really helped each other a lot.”

One of the student visitors, 10-year-old Derek Grimsley,q admired the effort his fellow fifth-graders put into their projects, especially in memorizing their speeches. When asked if he would like to try something similar, he and the classmates around him said yes.

Willie Wilson observed all the activity with patience as he waited for his 10-year-old daughter Sherice to begin her portrayal of Harriet Tubman, a leader of the underground railroad who helped slaves to freedom.

“I think it’s neat,” he said. “I wish when I was going through school they had something like this.”