NEW PARIS — During this holiday season, students from National Trail Middle School took on a project to record and document history.

Tyler Luce, who is the 6th grade Social Studies teacher at NT contacted Lisa White, the Executive Director for the Preble County Historical Society looking for ideas to engage his students in local history. White had the idea to teach the students about podcasts and documentaries. She visited the classroom twice, teaching effective interviewing skills, watching and listening to other interviews that had been previously recorded and prepared the students to record history themselves to learn more.

Luce then helped the students come up with leading questions, created a script for the students to begin with and then the students took it from there.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, several student chose a person they knew who had lived or worked in Preble County for most of their lives. They sat down, and asked questions. They recorded the conversations and turned them over to the Preble County Historical Society to review. PCHS will choose the top three to publish in 2024, on the Preble County Historical Society Podcast & Documentary channels.

“We are beyond proud of these students for their excitement and work on this project. Being in the classroom with them, making history cool was truly a highlight of my year at PCHS. The students are eager to learn and I thought this was the perfect way to help record history plus teach them about our past,” said White.

Anyone interested can listen to the PCHS podcast on Spotify by searching “Historical Society Network” or view documentaries on YouTube by searching “Preble County Historical Society.”

There will be a lot more on this coming in 2024. For more information, call 937-787-4256 or email [email protected].

PCHS thanks the Preble County Convention and Visitors Bureau for its continued support of the podcast and documentaries projects.