Twenty-eight fourth graders at Meadowlark Elementary had their final state projects on display for inspection by fellow classmates and visitors to the school. The tabletop presentations are the culmination of five weeks of work in social studies. Fourth graders learn about each geographical region in the U.S. then draw a state for their final 'state project' which they complete the last quarter of the school year. During each of the five weeks they are assigned specific topics-state economy, famous dates and citizens, major cities, etc. All the information then goes on to poster boards for the students' final displays.

During the display students stand by their projects to answer questions or point out interesting facts to visitors. It appeared some of the students were not particularly happy about doing research on the state they drew, but most all put on a brave face to share what they had learned.

Fourth grade teachers Shandel Fouts and Emily Scofield's students have done the state project for the last couple of years. Fouts explained the process for assigning states for research. She said, "The first time we let the students pick the state they wanted to research. We quickly learned there was a lot of fussing about who got which states. We went to the lottery system, you research the state you draw." Just to keep things on an even keel, the state of Montana is not normally in the drawing.

It was fun to visit with the kids and learn about the state they had studied. Some had gone to a lot of work to make elegant posters with colorful illustrations. When I told the student who had researched Georgia I used to live there, he excitedly asked, "Were you there when the 10 pound trout was caught in the Chattahoochee River (a river that runs north to south across much of the state and passes near to the city of Atlanta)?" Ms. Fouts explained the student's question to me this way, "Each student much select several important historical events in the state they are studying. Obviously this student was impressed with the catching of a 10 pound trout and that was one of the important events he documented and studied."

Koleman Anderson and his paraprofessional aid, Leanne Haider, were allowed to do a study of Montana. Ms. Fouts showed me all the work that Koleman did, cutting out pictures of what he would need to pack for a trip to Montana and selecting the letters to label his project. The picture of him fishing, an activity he enjoys, was quite cleverly presented in the display.

Teachers Fouts and Scofield team teach fourth graders for social studies and science. Scofield explained, "We each have our strong suits, Ms. Fouts is very good with social studies, I'm strong in science. For those particular projects we combine two fourth grade classes and we each teach the subject that we do best."

Koleman Anderson, with help from paraprofessional Leanne Haider, created his state project about Montana. Koleman, who enjoys fishing, is shown in this photo holding a fishing rod at a lake. Koleman's photo was part of a three-dimensional diorama created to show the ecological diversity of Montana in the state project.

One of the things the teachers said they enjoy about the state project is that former students who did the project like to see how current students handled the same state. It's likely these students will recall obscure facts about the state they studied for years in to the future. And I'm guessing the guy who asked about the 10 pound trout caught in Georgia will be looking to visit the Chattahoochee River someday and see where that famous event actually occurred.