Reed Students Create A ‘Chinese Museum’

By Eliza Hallabeck

From food to rare animals, Reed Intermediate School sixth grade students in Maura Drabik and Todd Stentiford’s cluster recently completed research projects on China that made up a Chinese Museum at the school while on exhibit.

“This is for a social studies project on China,” said sixth grader Simran Chand, who completed her own project on Taiwan. “We were all assigned different topics.”

Ms Drabik said the projects are completed each year following a study of China, but this was the first year she invited people connected to Newtown High School’s China Initiative to visit the completed museum, set up in a science lab at Reed.

There were nearly 30 different projects set up for the Chinese Museum, which was set up through Tuesday, March 29. A model of Confucius, the renown Chinese philosopher, stood within one diorama in the room, while a Lego recreation of a Chinese New Year celebration sat on the table across the room. Other projects ranged from fishing techniques to athletics.

Sixth grader Matthew Auerbach said he created his project on the Chinese Zodiac. He learned he was born in the year of the Tiger.

“Some of the coolest [projects],” Simran said, “were from the people who got to make things.”

A yurt, a Mongolian hut, was another project created by a student. Ms Drabik said the students also shared tea and fortune cookies in recognition of the project.

Newtown China Initiative project coordinator Jason Hiruo said images of the projects will be taken with the visiting delegation of Newtown teachers, administrators, and students scheduled to visit Newtown’s sister schools in Liaocheng, in the Shandong Province of China, later in April.