Cornerstone Middle School Visits Historic Norcross

Recently, students at Cornerstone Christian Academy had an opportunity to learn about the history of the city in which their school was founded. It wasn’t a typical history lesson. The lesson incorporated elements of history, science, math and writing. The tour was developed around the historic markers that are posted in downtown Norcross. Students were given maps, clipboards, pencils, calculators and a list of questions. Using the map, they worked together to find each marker, answered the historical questions that were based on information from the sign, as well as, math and science questions that required them to use knowledge from the classroom. The 5th and 6th graders wrote reflections on what they learned while in their language arts class the following day. The 7th and 8th graders will complete DBQs using documents that chronicle some aspect of Norcross history.

The idea was born from a similar exercise in which Cornerstone math/robotics teacher, Terri Childers, participated while at a Math conference in Boston last spring. The Boston Historical Tour incorporated only history and math. Childers sought help from colleague, Katie Trapani, who teaches history at Cornerstone. Trapani has vast experience planning large school events. Every year, she coordinates the Wax Museum and Immigration Day for her 5th grade History students. Childers and Trapani spent a day during the summer locating each marker in Historic Norcross and developing questions for each stop and met several other times to plan the logistics of the field trip.

Among things students learned on the tour were that J.J. “Cousin John” Thrasher purchased the land that is now Norcross. He was strategic in making the purchase of several parcels of land in the area, all of which fell on either side of the newly constructed Richmond and Danville Railroad Line. He subdivided the parcels into lots and sold them. The city was incorporated in October of 1870 and Thrasher became the first mayor of the city that he named Norcross in honor of his good friend, Jonathan Norcross, the fourth mayor of Atlanta. Norcross, known as “the father of Atlanta,” was instrumental in the process that moved the state capitol from Milledgeville to Atlanta. As students toured Historic Norcross, they looked for trees that are native to Georgia such as the Southern Magnolia and the enormous American Elm located in the small park next to the police station. They calculated how long it would take the Air Line Belle to cover the distance from Atlanta to Norcross given an average speed. Students also calculated the force it takes to move the pistons (with pressurized steam) that propel the train down the tracks. Students enjoyed a picnic lunch in Lillian Webb Park before the tour began and some leisure time in Thrasher Park at the end. The tour was an innovative way to incorporate hands-on learning outside the traditional classroom.