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[maxgallery id="32410"]The Belmont Recreation Center teemed with proud parents and beaming fifth graders November 28, as they gathered for Henrico’s annual Historical Awareness Project awards reception.
This is the 15th year that Henrico County Public Schools and Henrico County Recreation and Parks has teamed with community organizations on the project, Carol Simopoulos told the crowd. Partner organizations include the Henrico Preservation Advisory Committee, the Henrico County Historical Society, and the Association for the Preservation of Henrico Antiquities, said Simopoulos, the educational specialist for K-5 social studies.
“We [educators] like to make things engaging,” Simopolous explained, as she provided a brief history of the project’s origins, crediting Chris Gregson, supervisor for historic preservation, and Beverly Cocke of the school board for devising the idea. The project gets the students involved in learning in a way, Simopolous said, that studying for a multiple-choice tests cannot.
What’s more, she went on, the project tends to get parents engaged in local history as well.
“Do you recognize this?” Simo-polous teased parents, holding aloft the fifth-grade Henrico history text and smiling as heads nodded throughout the room. “Have you learned something new? Has your child taught you something?”
For the project, fifth-graders were given the prompt, “Highlight a person, place, or event from Henrico County’s past or present that you believe has shaped our county’s history and explain your choice.” Each student then researched the chosen topic and sketched out ideas for a presentation that would showcase their topic to the class.
After class votes and teacher input, one sketched idea was selected to represent each school, and that student was given a tri-fold board with which to create the project. A committee of judges from the sponsoring organizations reviewed the tri-folds for historical accuracy, and judges for each magisterial district selected three top winners based on such criteria as design, documentation, evidence of historical analysis, and justification for the topic’s impact on Henrico County history.
All 33 students who submitted on behalf of their schools received certificates, and winners from the magisterial districts received additional ribbons, historical maps and books, and other perks.
The 15 students receiving top honors included, in the Brookland District, Gabby Castro of Longan E.S., who won first place for her display about Mount Malady. Gretchen Gulosh of Echo Lake E.S. took second place for her project focusing on Virginia Randolph, and Mackenzie Holsomback of Glen Allen E.S. earned a third place for her presentation about the Henrico Theatre.
Among the winners from Fairfield District was Olivia Brooks-Giles of Longdale E.S., whose project, entitled “Henrico County Before & After Civil War,” took first-place honors. Second place winner Tamiyah Williams of Radcliffe E.S. focused on Pocahontas, and third-place winner Ajah Coleman of Laburnum E.S. highlighted Sir George Yeardley.
Representing the Tuckahoe District, Emerson Snopik of Tuckahoe E.S. took first place for a project entitled, “Henricus and the Roots of Henrico County.” Hayden Bynum of Pinchbeck E.S. won second place for a display about Sir Thomas Dale, and From Skipwith E.S., and Alexa Flegas of Skipwith E.S. earned third place for her project, “The Life of Virginia Randolph.”
All three of the Three Chopt District students focused their presentations on Virginia Randolph, with Miliani Hoang of Three Chopt E.S. winning first place, Nikhita Saravanan of Short Pump E.S. placing second, and Avery Opalka of Nuckols Farm E.S. garnering third-place honors.
From Varina, Paige Freeman of Baker E.S. took first place for a project about Genevieve Krimm Orange. Kyla Swaney of Seven Pines E.S. earned a second-place ribbon for her project about the Lost City, and Jack Waid of Fair Oaks won third place for his project about Henricus.
