Teaching students how to use their prior knowledge, US History teacher Jessica Kelly assigned students to create a poster that connects human anatomy to American Revolution.

“I chose this project because students will learn the basics of the American Revolution on their own,” Kelly said. “Most students know the basics, so this project is nice for them to relearn the information they learned in middle school.”

After forming groups, students had to find ways to relate the American Revolution to a body part of their choice. For instance, the heart represents freedom.

“It allows us to express the war in a new way,” junior Maya Negash said. “Expressing the events with the body and relating to the head, heart or any organs teaches us higher level skills. In history, we’ll have to relate things that happen back then to us now, so this project is a good way to start.”

The project was inspired by the Crane Brinton Model of a revolution. Since the model explains the “Anatomy of a Revolution,” Kelly thought it would be fitting to use this idea for a class project and reflective essay.

“This project and presentation allowed my group to have a lot of freedom, whether it be with the art or with the organs,” junior Eldina Mrkulic said. “We had two class periods to create the poster and now we have to present and write a short essay.”

After this project, students will continue learning more in-depth information about the American Revolution and working on interpretation skills.

“They have developed the analytical skills they will need in the future of this class,” Kelly said. “In this project they’re interpreting the revolution through the human body, so they’ll learn to interpret history differently. Now, I’ll expect more from them because they’ve had some practice.”