A hands-on history lesson was delivered to a group of Buffalo city school students Wednesday. WBFO'S Focus on Education reporter Eileen Buckley says the William Grabiarz School of Excellence was one of five schools selected during an Upstate visit.
Grabiarz 5th graders had a chance to climb on-board the 45-foot-C-SPAN bus arrived. It travels the country providing history and information to students.
A C-SPAN staffer gave overview of the cable network explaining that it was created 36-years ago providing non-partisan coverage of government.
The CSPAN bus has been traveling around for more than 20-years to schools. It provides on-board computerized screens and material for students to study.
5th graders at Grabiarz on the C-SPAN bus.
Credit WBFO News photo by Eileen Buckley
LaShawna Saint-Preux is the marketing representative traveling with C-SPAN.
"A lot of times they look for something they've already heard of. What's popular on our bus is the trivia. They really like the trivia and it's helpful for them to work together," said Saint-Preux.
5th grade social students teacher Chelsea Prophet says the CSPAN bus provides an interactive history lesson.
"It gives us the tools we need," said Prophet.
Garbiarz 5th graders Jordan Stephan and Anthony Gonzalez were excited to explore history.
"It was really cool," said Stephan. "It was fun and I learned a lot of stuff about C-SPAN," said Gonzalez.
Both students told WBFO News they wanted to learn something historic.
"I would like to look up something that happened in the history," stated Gonzalez. "How George Washington became the first President," said Stephan.
"After today, we will go in and talk about all the levels of government. We would follow up with talking about all the government procedures," said their teacher Prophet.
"It's aligned with our New York State framework, grade 5 curriculum which emphasizes United States History," said Charles Brandy, Director of Social Studies for the Buffalo Public School District.
"And we wanted to make sure that students got an opportunity to see the richness and diversity within American history and to actually see it and feel it."
C-SPAN bus outside the Grabiarz School off Lawn Avenue in Buffalo.
Credit WBFO News photo by Eileen Buckley
Before arriving in Buffalo the C-SPAN bus visited the Starpoint School in Lockport.
High school senior Michael Pyskaty received honorable mention for his video 'Cracking the Common Core' in CSPAN's StudentCam contest. The program encourages students to be critical thinkers and create short videos about issues.
"That's another thing we do to help the kids thing critically," noted Saint-Preux. "So we're really hoping to leave a lasting impression on them."
Grabiarz students were encouraged to make sure they enter the contest next school season.
