2010 Commemorate Kansas/Serve Kansas Mini-Grant Projects
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Butler Community College
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Fort Hays State University
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Garden City Community College
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Hutchinson Community College
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Kansas State University
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Seward County Community College
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Southwestern College
Butler Community College:
Kansas Heritage Project on Intergenerational Oral Histories
This intergenerational project will engage college students to help fourth graders record interviews with their elders about their Kansas experiences, to share these with the larger community, archive them for posterity, and create lesson plans teachers can use to replicate the experience. Fourth grade classes will participate in order to meet state benchmarks for historical thinking skills. Because of the limited time, 10-20 students will be selected from 1-2 fourth grade classes from El Dorado, Kansas (USD 490), and 1-2 fourth grade classes from Augusta, Kansas (USD 402), to participate. El Dorado and Augusta were selected because they are now a part of our nation’s Presidential history as the childhood homes of President Obama’s maternal grandparents.
Culmination of the project will occur on Kansas Day with a community event celebrating the role of everyday citizens in Kansas history. A state dignitary will be the keynote speaker, and the heart of the event will be the screening of a documentary featuring selected excerpts from the interviews, followed by special recognition of the participants. Preservation of the archived interviews in the appropriate selected library, establishment of a protocol for adding future interviews to the archives, and posting of project and lesson plans on the “President Obama’s Kansas Heritage” website will ensure sustainability by providing for replication of the project or parts of it by other schools and communities.
Contact: Teresa Baumgartner, (316) 322-3331
Fort Hays State University:
Kansas Corps
Kansas Corps Campus Leaders and volunteers will be assisting the Kansas State Historical Society located in Topeka, KS and the Butler County Historic Center located in El Dorado, KS on January 29 and 30, 2010, respectively. Kansas Corps volunteers will hail from Fort Hays State University, McPherson College, Hutchinson Community College, Pittsburg State University, Pratt Community College, Butler County Community College, Seward County Community College, and Garden City Community College, and possibly other campuses if volunteers can be identified. These Kansas Corps volunteers will participate in the activities hosted by the respective facilities. Some of the activities will be, but are not limited to, ushering visitors, greeting/welcoming visitors, serving refreshments, monitoring, facilitating Kansas history, set-up and clean-up responsibilities, and so on.
The Kansas State Historical Society will need 30 volunteers on Friday, January 29, 2010, with their project starting at 9:00 a.m. The Butler County History Center will need 20 volunteers on Saturday, January 30, 2010 for their Kansas Day celebration starting at 12:00 p.m. The number of volunteers requested does not include the Kansas Corps Campus Leaders themselves, of which there are 9 – possibly 10 by the date of the Kansas Day service project. This project will not only serve Kansans, but also give campus volunteers the opportunity to learn about Kansas history.
Contact: Leah Noakes, (785) 628-4668
Garden City Community College:
TRIO/Educational Talent Search
The purpose of the Kansas Day program will be to expose elementary students to information about Kansas Day including historical information, foods, toys, and activities of early settlers. Many students in Garden City are first generation and may not have any Kansas Day Traditions. This project will allow secondary students to research some Kansas activities, develop them, present them (public speaking opportunity) and complete a valuable community service project.
Educational Talent Search (ETS) high school students will develop Kansas Day activities for third graders at an elementary school in Garden City. The ETS students will present these activities in an interactive station environment. Activities will include tasting some Kansas Day foods, making a card game of Kansas Symbol, making a quilt block, making marbles and learning to play the game, making a windmill, stenciling, making a tin punch lantern and possibly others. The students will give an explanation of each activity and have an explanation translated in Spanish and Vietnamese so parents can read the explanation when the student shares the items at home. Pictures will be taken of the students presenting the different activities and working with students. Certificates of participation will also be given to the elementary participants as well as the secondary facilitators.
Contact: Deborah Berkley, (620) 276-9515
Hutchinson Community College:
Circle K/Boys and Girls Club
Hutchinson Community College’s Circle K organization will develop three games to use at the Ave A Boys and Girls Club after school program on Kansas Day, January 29th. The students will research Kansas and Kansas History for this event using the resources of the Reno County Historical Museum and the Kansas State Historical Society website (http://www.kshs.org/kids/famous.htm)
The games to be developed:
- Sunflower Feud will be a game with two teams of 5 players answering questions about Kansas Facts. For example, the largest cities, facts about the Kansas flag, population, government officials, state symbols, state quarter, exports, etc.
- Kansas History Squares will be based on the TV game show Hollywood Squares and will focus on the history of Kansas - when it became a state, Kansas' role in the Civil War, famous historical Kansas figures, such as Dwight D. Eisenhower, Amelia Earhart, George Washington Carver, Joe Engle, and others.
- All Things Kansas Password - will be a take-off on the old game show Password. Where students will pair off and one will be given a word that relates to Kansas and he/she must give the other person one-word clues to try and guess the word. After each round an explanation of how that word relates to Kansas will be given.
On Kansas Day, the HCC Circle K Students will wear Kansas Day t-shirts displaying the KS Campus Compact logo and highlighting this special event. They will bring a spirit of celebration for the Kansas Day games and work with the Boys and Girls Club participants in two groups, K through 3rd grade and 4th through 6th grade. Rules and skill levels will be appropriate for each age group.
Contact: Debbie Berndsen, (620) 665-4960
Kansas State University:
Human Rights History in Riley County
This project will revolve around human rights history in the state of Kansas and specifically gather local oral histories and contributions from community members.
Kansas’ human rights activities have lead the nation historically. After speaking with the Riley County Historical Museum Director and members of the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Committee, many local community members have played significant roles in the state’s human rights history. Unfortunately there is limited access and historical documentation of those efforts. With the assistance of Kansas State University students, public institutions and a community-based organization who recognizes citizens who have contributed to the “diversity of the community and the greater good”, this proposed co-curricular service-learning project will collect oral histories of community members of the Spirit of MLK Community Service Awards. These digitally recorded histories will be archived in the Riley County Historical Museum with copies available at the Manhattan Public Library.
Contact: Lynda Bachelor, (785) 532-7607
Seward County Community College:
Intermediate School Education
College students, Seward County Historical Museum personnel and USD #480 School District instructors will partner to educate local intermediate grade students on Kansas History on January 29, 2010.
Intermediate school students will have the opportunity to visit the Seward County Historical Museum to learn about Kansas history. College students will assist museum personnel in creating a window display on Kansas history and design a picture board that will be used in presenting a story regarding Kansas history. The college students will plan the program for the intermediate students and provide the tours of the Museum following the program.
There will be 4 programs presented throughout the day, to educate approximately 100 intermediate students. Students will be given promotional items to commemorate Kansas History. (pencils, bookmarks, etc.)
Contact: Celeste Donovan, (620) 417-1016
Southwestern College:
Kansas: Modeling Sustainability Throughout the Decades and into the Future
Students from the Southwestern College Green Team will develop and give educational presentations on sustainability in Kansas to Cowley County middle and high school students. Scope of the presentations will include the history of Kansas as a leader in agriculture and sustainable living in the past as well as practical suggestions for sustainable living now and into the future.
The project will culminate with a presentation of renewable energy by employees of Cate’s Supply (The Energy Savings Store) at the Southwestern College Biology Field Station. Cate’s Supply recently installed a 2.5 kilowatt solar array and a 200 watt wind turbine which provide all of the power for the Biology Field Station. The students will be allowed to tour the Biology Field Station and see firsthand how renewable energy functions. The Southwestern Biology Field Station is located on 240 acres of land approximately 10 miles north of Winfield, Kansas. It will provide the students with a combination of Kansas’s past and present (agriculture) and its future (renewable energy generation).
The Southwestern College 2010 Commemorate Kansas/Serve Kansas project will take place on Kansas Day, January 29, 2010.
Contact: Jason Speegle, (620) 229-6311
