EUGENE, Mo. - Marie Curie was surrounded by test tubes and a periodic chart; Dr. Suess donned the familiar striped-stove pipe hat of his character the Cat in the Hat; and Stan Musial brought his baseball bat and St. Louis Cardinals uniform.
The halls of Eugene Elementary School were filled with about three dozen famous people Monday morning as sixth-graders portrayed their researched personas at the annual Living Museum.
Layne Kempker admired Daniel Boone, an outdoorsman just like himself. He crafted a mountainscape as his backdrop and carved a spear from one of his outdoor treks.
Kempker had the help of his grandma to put together his buckskin-like outfit.
Similarly, Grant Hagner enlisted his parents to put together his Dale Earnhardt Sr. presentation. Not only did his mother, Heather, turn a white painter's suit into a race car driver uniform, but his father, Greg, helped him convert a cardboard box into a sleek race car.
Promise Grace preferred the writing portion of her assignment on Sacagawea. In previous years, she walked through the Living Museum, as younger students did Monday, listening to stories of Pocahontas, Queen Elizabeth and Beyonce.
But Grace said she chose Sacagawea because she thought they looked alike and she enjoyed finding her Native American costume.
Other featured "museum exhibits" included Cleopatra, Leonardo da Vinci, Abigail Adams, Rosa Parks, Helen Keller, Neil Armstrong, Steve Jobs and Brett Favre.
The project supports the sixth-grade social studies research skill development, said teacher Shanna McCoy.
"In sixth-grade they are expected to select, investigate and present a topic using primary and secondary resources, such as oral interviews, artifacts, journals, documents, photos and letters ... (and) use technological tools for research and presentation," McCoy said. "It is amazing the amount of research these students have done for this project."
Librarian Gayle Skaggs assisted the sixth-grade classrooms in their research projects, which began a month ago.
"They had a lot of parent support; that is awesome," Skaggs said.
Next year, the fourth-grade classes will present their Hall of Famous Missourians, as the research projects alternate each year.
"The kids found out a lot of interesting things," Skaggs said.
Kindergarten teacher Kim Bax watched many of her former students deliver their memorized biographies.
"This is awesome for the classes who did the research about their character, memorized it and dressed up," Bax said. "And it's great for everybody. "It makes the entire school come together."