LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. — A Lancaster County history teacher is giving a lesson in World War I by having students "dig up dirt"... literally!
Over 500 students from various grade levels were digging trenches along the Solanco High School grounds on Thursday, April 18.
Solanco social studies teacher Mike Miler calls it Trench Day. He says that for months students have been working hard to design the trenches, build periscopes and rifle posts, along with metal prepping and learning techniques from local World War I re-enactors.
"It's one thing to watch and read about [WWI] in textbooks, but it's another to get out there and see this is what people really sat in for years at a time and had to endure [along with] the psychological and mental effects of all that. I think it's a hands-on way [to] teach history in a meaningful way that also builds teamwork," Miller explained.
The lesson also spanned throughout the school. Family science classes cooked roughly 650 WWI-style meals for the "student soldiers."