The Southwest Michigan Black Heritage Society "The connection to yesterday"

JOIN THE HISTORY DETECTIVES

If you are interested in applying to the History Detective Program,
please read the History Detectives Guidelines and then submit via email the completed Application, Recommendation and Parental Consent Forms below:

• Application Form
• Recommendation Form
• Parental Consent Form

THE HISTORY DETECTIVES PROJECT

The Southwest Michigan Black Heritage Society's History Detectives Project is one in which middle school students engage in activities that provide training in doing history. The purpose is to engender an enthusiasm for the study of history and to provide local youth with a link to their past. The mission of the History Detectives Project is to improve specific academic skills, to address the problem of lack of direction and commitment in youth, and to promote self-esteem and provide inspiration and guidance to youth by connecting them with their past. Historians and professionals visit the classroom and provide training to students in the techniques of research, evaluation, and presentation of history. These students are beginning the work of the Society's long-term goal of creating a research library of local African American history that will be available to scholars, researchers, and family historians in the community

The 2009 History Detectives program is an oral history project and is being conducted in classrooms at the Maple Street Magnet School for the Arts in Kalamazoo. Phase I of the program will serve 31 students and Phase Two will serve 32 as follows:

• Phase One
  • Fourth Hour Students
  • Fifth Hour Students
• Phase Two
  • First Hour Students

Students engage in cross-generational connections with the college student mentors and the seniors with whom they collaborate and interview. They are being trained in research, oral history interviewing, recording and video- taping, and transcribing. Sessions address improving communications and interpersonal skills as well as problem solving and thinking critically. Projected outcomes of the program are:

1. Increased student communications, interpersonal, technical, and problem-solving skills, and an increase in test scores, especially in history and language arts;
2. Improvement in leadership and organizational skills in students, increased self-esteem, increased historical knowledge, a greater appreciation of their own heritage, and increased self-esteem and self-worth in the participating elders;
3. Increased awareness of the contributions of African Americans in the community.

Students work in teams of five and team members are given a choice among the following jobs:

Team manager: works with other team members to develop questions and follow-ups, acts as liaison with the interviewee, and keeps the team on task with its assignments.

Interviewer: asks the questions of the interviewee.

Note taker/transcriber: assists the interviewer by recording the responses of the interviewee, becomes the interviewer if the designated person is not available, and transcribes the interview to paper.

Technician/photographer: responsible for the quality of the taped interview and any necessary photographs.

Researcher: leads the research into the culture of the interviewee's decade. All team members work together to develop questions and follow-ups.


At the end of the program students transform the stories they have documented into creative and practical projects, including a website, a searchable database, exhibits, plays, and art works.