For the last month Lisa Gatzkes eighth-grade class has been studying the Civil War and the people who fought in it.
Gatzke took her students to the Cortez Cemetery Thursday morning so they could see the headstones and read newspaper articles about the veterans to discover more information about the men and the part they played in creating Cortez and Montezuma County.
Before coming to the cemetery, Gatzke told her students about what they could learn about the veterans by the information that was placed on headstones or markers.
Gatzke said the students already had looked at photos prior to visiting the cemetery and searching for Civil War veteran graves, which was the culmination of the project.
She said students should be able to determine the location where the veterans were based or the unit they fought for by the information on the gravestones.
She also asked students to do research on the Civil War veterans gravestones they did find to determine what the person did in Cortez, the local history and the part they played in creating Cortez.
Students used newspaper articles to get more information on the veterans and were required to write a short paragraph on what they learned from Thursdays exercise, including the information learned about the war, the soldiers and the small rural town of Cortez.
I just want to make history come alive, she said. Even in this small town there are people who fought in the Civil War.
Eighth-grader Matthew Fuentes said the Civil War exercise helped him learn about the past, how they lived and what the soldiers lives were like.
He said Gatzke told the class two weeks ago they were going to visit the Cortez Cemetery to look for the graves of Civil War veterans.
Kaleb Burris said he and the other students were trying to find five specified gravestones of Civil War veterans and also had to find another five veteran gravestones from that time frame.
She gave us the blocks and the numbers, Burris said. We are just trying to use those to find the people.
Cody Canzona said he hoped to learn more about the number of people from Cortez who fought in the Civil War and the roles they took in developing Cortez.
Amy Campbell said the gravestones can tell the type of religion they followed, where they were born and lived as well as the day they were born and died.
Drake Slagle said the field trip to the cemetery was the culmination of the Civil War exercise and added additional research would have to be done on some Civil War veterans to determine the type of weapon they used.
Students were able to determine what side North or South the veterans fought on by where the soldiers were living at the time.
Emily Eavenson said one part of Thursdays exercise was trying to locate the gravestones of Civil War soldiers who called Cortez home.
Gabby Wolf said she and the other students would need to analyze the data before writing about it.
Its a fun field trip with the worksheet, she said.
For each gravestone, students had to list the name, date of birth, date of death, union or confederate, distinguishing marks on the headstone and up to three facts from the newspaper about the soldier.
the importance of water
In another Cortez Middle School classroom-based project, teacher Kate Ott took the entire sixth-grade class to Denny Lake Park on Thursday to test the health of the Denny Lake.
They collected data on aquatic life, conducted water chemistry, soil tests and learned how to use compasses and maps.
This data collection followed the culmination of a water-based project that she titled Dying of Thirst.
Students in this project were asked if they would prefer a three-day supply of food or water if they were stranded for three days.
In the first round after 15 minutes of outside physical activity, 30 students chose water over food and the other 15 selected food. In the second survey 44 of 45 students selected water over food and had to explain where they thought drinking water came from and whether it was a renewable or non renewable resource.
Students were then required to write a five-paragraph research paper.
Ott also created the water simulation project in which each student donated $5 to participate and students obtained potable water for the class by hauling it in one-gallon jugs up three flight of stairs to the classroom water cooler.
Students were asked to purchase water they used throughout the day.
A four-ounce drink of water cost five cents, an eight-ounce drink of water cost 10 cents, the lunch beverage was five cents and using the bathroom cost another 10 cents.
The project raised $250 and Ott matched that amount, and the $500 will be used to purchase a well for those without available drinking water.
Reach Michael Maresh at michaelm@cortezjournal.com