FMS Teacher Brings Historical Event to Life

“During the Boston Massacre in 1770, did the British soldiers commit murder or were they acting in self-defense?” This was the question in debate in Lindsay Parish’s eighth grade social studies class at Frenship Middle School today.

The students are studying the Boston Massacre and Parish chose a fun and engaging way to teach the lesson by having the students rotate through several stations, one of which was a mock crime scene.

“I think this is better than just telling them about the event,” said Parish. “They really like the activity and have been asking to do more things like this. It’s fun to see them have their minds made up in the beginning and then go through all the evidence and form different opinions.”

The crime scene was sectioned off in the classroom where an outline of a body, pieces of evidence and clues could be found. Students had to use deductive reasoning from the evidence and conclude whether the event was murder or self-defense. They also read comments from people who were involved and had to discuss the facts they were given to help decide.

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” said Kaia Moore, FMS student. “It’s really fun and it helps us understand it more. It keeps all the information in our heads.”

The crime scene was an effective way to set the stage for the study and the students really enjoyed the interaction.