At the end of November, Ms. Carey’s 10th grade English classes presented their findings on fear to peers and staff. The projects started mid-month, when the students were presented with three research topics to choose from. The topics included what scares the overall Lyons community, what scared mid-twentieth century Americans, and what ancient peoples thought about comets.
The students then completed a research project guided by questions for each topic:
1. How do Lyons community members feel about scary but generally safe situations? This was done by creating a 10-question Google Form, eliciting responses from our community (students, staff, friends, and family). Students then needed to organize and interpret their data in order to make a claim answering the research question.
2. What scared mid-20th century Americans? By watching horror films from the 1950s and 1960s, and researching historical context, students made a claim about what scared Americans at that time. They made connections between the films and the International Space Race, the Cold War, and innate human fears.
3. How were comets seen as objects of fear in ancient societies? Students conducted research to discover how ancient societies explained comets, what they meant, and the reasoning behind those thoughts and feelings.
Students researched and interpreted their findings, then created Google Slides presentations. They shared their findings with their peers and other members of Lyons MS/HS via roundtable presentations on Monday, November 27th and Tuesday, November 28th.
One overall finding was that many people in the Lyons community share the same typical fears, but are less afraid when they are with a friend or family member.
Thank you to Ms. Carey and her students for sharing their research and findings with us!
