Sachem 4th Grade Coders Make Revolutionary War Come Alive

SACHEM, NY — You might not remember this type of work from your fourth grade experience, but curriculum at Tamarac Elementary School in the Sachem Central School District allowed fourth-graders to travel back through time on a unique educational journey that combined history and coding software.

Fourth graders in the school studied the American Revolution by first conducting research projects on such monumental figures as Benjamin Franklin, Molly Pitcher, Paul Revere, Deborah Sampson and George Washington, according to a news release.

Alongside the research, students built bottled figures that resembled the figures they selected to learn about for the project.

But the students didn't stop there.

With the help of technology integration specialist Claudia Camassa, students then used coding software and kits to animate the bottle characters with recordings of their voices. The voice over recordings told the story of how their characters were involved in the Revolutionary War.

The students eventually presented their projects and bottle figures for family and friends in an interactive presentation.