961051378742f1eb3c98dcdcb90ce646.jpg

BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP: Living museum educates and entertains

By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP — The past came alive for students at Bordentown Regional Middle School last week when the IMPACT Club teamed with two faculty members to celebrate Black History Month.
    Club members and other student helpers staffed five stations at the library, each featuring a different aspect of African-American history with a student playing a historical figure, a media presentation, a short history, and a set of questions for the visitors.
    Classes visited the “living museum” Feb. 18 through Friday.
    Guidance counselor Dawn Paterson and science teacher Amy Rabenda organized the project along with the IMPACT Club, whose name stands for Improving Minds with Positive Attitude and Cooperative Togetherness. The club’s purpose is to promote multicultural awareness and reduce discrimination through school-based projects.
    “It seems like it’s going really well,” Ms. Rabenda said Thursday, as nine volunteers presented to groups of about five students each. “The kids are enjoying it and learning a lot.”
    She said this is the first time the school has done such a project, which came about after she and her partner thought of doing historical re-enactments for Black History Month.
    “We wanted something more interactive, to draw the attention of middle schoolers,” she said, which lead to the challenge questions in each exhibit. The multimedia aspect helped round things out, she said.
    At four of the five stations, visitors were asked to match items, such as quotes or music clips, to the famous African-American with which they were associated. At the music exhibit, the students heard songs like Aretha Franklin’s “Chain of Fools” and Beyoncé Knowles’ “Irreplaceable,” while at the invention station, they were asked to match objects such as a water gun or a light bulb to the inventor.
    Students submitted their answers, with the change to win an iPod Shuffle digital music player for answering them all correctly.
    “It’s good to have an incentive,” Mr. Rabenda said. “We wanted them to have something to work for.”
    One station focused on figures in the civil rights movement. Sixth-graders Bhavana Mukkamala and Ashley Rios ran the presentation, with Bhavana introducing the subject and Ashley playing the part of Ruby Bridges Hall, the first African-American child to attend an all-white school in the South.
    “I think this program is really cool, especially as a tour guide,” Bhavana said. “I feel like I’m educating my classmates.”
    She said she joined the IMPACT Club because, “I like to help out with everything I see.”
    The two girls also presented a clip from “The Children’s March,” a documentary on a march black children went on in Birmingham, Ala., in the ’60s.
    At the politics exhibit, a student dressed as Barack Obama talked about his life, while at the sports stop students got to hear from Mohammed Ali. Other students portrayed Queen Latifah and inventor Madame C.J. Walker.
    Multimedia presentations included clips on Jackie Robinson, an online matching game with famous African-Americans, and part of a movie about young African-Americans’ relationships with their ancestors, “A Place at the Table.”
    Ms. Rabenda said the group would like to continue with projects such as these, with the next one perhaps focusing on Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from mid-September to mid-October.