By MOLLY DAVIDSON / Staff Writer

NORTH SHELBY—Inverness Elementary School third graders showed off their research and American history knowledge on April 28 and 29, presenting a living wax museum to family, friends and fellow students.

Students portrayed influential American figures, including presidents, civil rights activists, sports heroes, politicians, explorers and leaders in education.

The wax museum presentation is the culmination of weeks of research and preparation.

“We’ve been working on this for three to four weeks, and they’re doing a great job with it,” IES third grade teacher Michelle Price said. “This is our final third grade project, our big showdown. They can showcase everything, their research and their writing.”

Students select their own historical figure, then they research using books supplemented with Internet sources and write a report. Finally, the students condense their report into a memorized speech and put together an authentic outfit to portray their historical figure during the wax museum presentation. Some students also created a kite displaying facts about their historical figure.

“I liked researching the whole thing, but making the kite was pretty fun also,” third grader Carolyn Graham said. Graham portrayed former First Lady, Secretary of State and current presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton.

“She proves girls can do anything boys can do,” Graham said.

Through the project, students not only learned facts about their historical figures, they also connected with them.

Third grader Preston Bishop researched and portrayed former Secretary of State and retired four-star general, Colin Powell.

“I chose to study him because my brother is in the Army,” Bishop said, he was inspired by Powell “because he was the first African American Secretary of State” and “because he was a general in the Army.”

IES third grader Jackson Beard portrayed 19th century American explorer, William Clark.

“I really liked him because he had good information and he had really hard things to do,” Beard said of his historical figure. “One day his knowledge could help us.”