Faculty organize place-based experiential learning to immerse students in history
Dr. Mary Huffman and Dr. Tyler Youngman from East Carolina University developed a 3-day Washington County place-based experiential learning program to immerse students in local history through hands-on, inquiry-based learning. The program emphasized analyzing artifacts, photographs, and historical materials to help secondary education students make inferences about the past and develop deeper historical understanding. Through structured activities such as historical traveling trunks and artifact analysis, students engaged their senses, prior knowledge, and critical thinking skills to construct meaning and generate questions about people, events, and time periods.
A key component of the program was helping students understand how history is organized, interpreted and represented. Learners explored concepts such as categorization, metadata and archival organization to see how historical knowledge is constructed. By examining personal and community artifacts, students identified patterns, relationships and themes, recognizing that history is not fixed but can be interpreted in multiple ways. This process encouraged them to think about how stories of the past are created, preserved and shared within communities.
The program culminated in collaborative, real-world experiences through visits to five local historic sites across Washington County, where students actively investigated history in place. These five sites included the Roanoke River Lighthouse, Underground Railroad Monument, and Roanoke River Maritime Museum in Plymouth; the Washington County African American Museum and Cultural Arts Center in Roper; and Somerset Place. During these site visits, students took on roles such as photographer, interviewer, transcriber, and coordinator to document and analyze their experiences along with artifacts that were found all around each site. Reflection activities encouraged them to connect artifacts and locations to broader historical narratives while considering the significance of each site. Ultimately, the program empowered students to see themselves as active participants in history, capable of interpreting and sharing the stories of their own communities.
