Anne in China? History of a P.E.I. Spy? Students showcase projects at heritage fair

From the history of the potato to the sinking of the Titanic and Anne of  Green Gables's international range, plenty of children's curiosity was on display at the 24th annual P.E.I. Provincial Heritage Fair.

Students representing 28 schools across the Island packed the halls at the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown to display their 149 historical projects.

Students from Grades 5 through 9 worked on projects in their own schools and were chosen to represent at the provincial fair.

"Kids just come alive and it's a lot of fun and you can see the excitement when they come in," said Charlotte Stewart, coordinator of the Provincial Heritage Fair. "The whole [Confederation] Centre is kind of buzzing with excitement here and it is great to see a lot of the community support."

Stewart has been coordinating the fair for the past 14 years and said that history is not the only thing the students are learning.

"It's a great way to connect with your community with your family and learn about different resources that are out there for information," she said. "Not just doing a Google search but using all sorts of different source materials and then getting that information together and being able to present it to other people." 

Community history

It was a class effort at Tignish Elementary School. Students were assigned to find out more about historical moments and locations in their community. They would then model clay and paint the scene in a frame.

"A lot of stuff we didn't know before about each landmark, so it was really cool," said Grade 6 student Stacy Handrahan.

Spanish Influenza

Anna Paquet, a Grade 9 student at Grace Christian School, decided to research the Spanish Influenza of 1918. 

"This is what our ancestors went through, and it is important to understand what they have gone through in the past."

Métis heritage

​Grade 5 student Kierra MacDougall, from Athena Consolidated focused on her own culture by researching her Métis heritage. 

"I did that because I'm Métis, and I wanted to learn about my culture and also share it," said MacDougall. 

Anne in China

Grade 9 student Ben Zhou, from East Wiltshire Intermediate School, decided to research the popularity of Anne of Green Gables in China. He was inspired to look into the topic after reading a few of the Anne books. 

​"After doing some research, I found it is so famous in China, and so many different versions have been translated," said Zhou. 

"I was surprised, I was very surprised." 

Spy from P.E.I.

The heritage fair was personal for one student who presented a Second World War P.E.I. spy  —  his own great-grandfather.

​"It was really interesting," said Grade 6 student Oscar Cormier from West Kent Elementary School. "I knew some of it from family stories but I never knew that he parachuted for instance, I found that probably the coolest thing I discovered."

During his research Cormier also found that many of the records from his great-grandfather's spy days might have been destroyed.

"I think that if we don't learn about the history, we'll make the same mistakes we made last time," Cormier said. "But also, Camp X burned all their records. So we learn from our history but I don't think they wanted us to know too much."

Selected projects to compete nationally

There were a large number of judges walking around and assessing the student projects.

Fifteen students will be selected to work on a video submission to compete nationally for a chance to go to Canada's History for Youth Forum in Ottawa.

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