Champaign-Urbana Archives

I will say that this trip not only met but absolutely and uneqivocably exceeded my expectations.  

During the archive's portion of the trip, our students were so engaged into their topics and the information from the archives that the students wanted to stay and look at more documents rather than going to lunch.  And for middle school students, this is a major deal!  It was exciting seeing how the past is not only interesting but relevant to our present and future.

As they studied microfilm, listened to audio recordings from interviews, read newspaper clips, and looked into yearbooks and marriage certificates their eyes became awakened to interview questions and points of conversations they could have with their interviewee.  It was exciting watching this process of discovery.

The WILL portion also was interesting in that students had a chance to see the behind the scenes look at how a television and radio station functions.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable trip and we have already booked a time and date to head back to the archives.