Thirty-nine high school students are exploring the meaning behind names and places in Georgia with the help of a Mercer University professor and two doctoral students. The result of their months-long research is shared in a new podcast, “History in Our Backyard: The Names and Places of Georgia.”
The podcast delves into the stories behind sites such as Lake Lanier, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Tallulah Falls, and Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.
“These names and places didn’t come out of nowhere, so what can we learn from this research, and how can that make us better informed about our community and who we are and how we solve problems?” said Dr. Katherine Perrotta, assistant professor of middle grades and secondary education at Mercer. “Names are important. Names are meaningful. And if we are not honoring or respecting a place or its name appropriately, what does that say about who we are?”
Dr. Perrotta is working on the podcast with Student Leadership NORTH, a community leadership program for high school students in Johns Creek, Roswell and Alpharetta. Dr. Perrotta previously worked with the group, formerly known as Student Leadership Johns Creek, on projects about the living history of the COVID-19 pandemic and the history of the Macedonia African Methodist Church Cemetery.
The podcast project is funded with grants from the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program and Mercer’s Office of the Provost.
Students worked on the project in groups. They brainstormed a list of places in Georgia and selected one to research. Then, they learned how to research using primary sources, including the Library of Congress and Georgia Historical Society, Dr. Perrotta said. Primary sources are firsthand accounts of a topic and may include newspaper reports, diaries, letters, interviews or photos, among others.
Next, the students wrote a paper about what they found and organized it into a script for the podcast. Finally, they recorded an eight- to 10-minute episode on their topic.
Doctoral students Katlynn Cross and Brittny Johnson, who are both pursuing a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction, helped design the project’s curriculum and hosted a weekly video call with the students to assist them along the way.
“Seeing the students learn about history in their backyard and seeing them learn about different people and places in Georgia that were meaningful and have such deep, rich history has been amazing,” said Johnson, who is also an academic advisor in the School of Business. “We’re learning things together because I’ve also learned quite a lot about places here in Georgia as well.”
Cross said the project also has benefited her own education.
“Working on this project with Dr. Perrotta has refined my research skills even more because one thing that I’ve learned in doing this project is sometimes you start a research project thinking you’re going to find one thing, but as the research goes on, that changes,” she said. “So, it has really taught me how to be a dynamic researcher.”
High school students working on the project said they found it fun and informative.
“I really like history, and I don’t know too much about Georgia’s history. So, I really enjoyed looking into all of that history and really learning more about how did this place come to be,” said Shaurya Attal, a junior at Chattahoochee High School. His group researched the Hartsfield portion of the name of Atlanta’s airport. “Short of writing the entire script, I think the research part was the most fun because you’re paging through so many different things and just gaining all that information.”
Sreepadha Daram, a junior at Innovation Academy, said the students in her group knew they wanted to pick a topic related to the Civil War. She said they wanted to delve deeper than what they learned in school, so they researched Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. This included exploring the meaning of the Muscogee-Creek words before they were translated to English.
“Really looking at that perspective, what the name meant to different tribes and what it meant for a person who lived at that time was really interesting,” she said.
Zara Duque Vasquez, a junior at Northview High School, researched Tallulah Falls with her group. Not only did she learn about the falls’ history but also how to collaborate with other people. Working with her classmates taught her to be a stronger leader and better team player, she said.
Because of the abundance of history in Georgia, the podcast project will sustain in the future, said Irene Sanders, executive director of Student Leadership NORTH. New groups of students will be able to continue the work by researching more names, places and topics.
The podcast will become part of the historical record itself, as it will be archived at the Fulton County Schools Teaching Museum, Sanders said.
The public is invited to a listening party from 6-8 p.m. April 3 in the Business and Education Building, Room 112, on Mercer’s Atlanta campus. Can’t make it? “History is Our Backyard” is available on the Student Leadership NORTH YouTube channel and wherever you get your podcasts.
