The Indianapolis 500, 500 Festival Parade, Indiana Pacers, Indianapolis Colts, Indiana Hoosiers and Purdue Boilermakers.
Corn, popcorn, blueberries, barns and farms.
Indianapolis Zoo and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
All of these things have one thing in common: Indiana.
Since the state’s history is part of the fourth grade curriculum, Seymour-Jackson Elementary School’s four fourth grade teachers gave their students about a week to complete a shoebox project. It could be anything related to Indiana, and they had to include a paragraph about their choice.
Also part of the students’ project for the 500 Festival and Indianapolis 500 Education Program, they researched winners of the famous race since it started in 1911, colored pictures of race cars and more, all meeting the academic standards for language arts, math, science and social studies.
There is no cost to participate in the program, which is presented by Indiana University Health, takes place in the spring and is open to all Indiana fourth grade classrooms. Teachers are provided with engaging lessons, classroom materials and an educational video series, and there’s an optional study trip to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway or a mobile study trip to a school.
Growing up on the north side of the state capital, Emily Pardieck has been to the Indianapolis 500, and when she later became a teacher, she incorporated the education program in her classroom.
“I’ve worked in other schools that we did this curriculum for fourth grade. It has been around for a while,” she said. “It was always a big deal. We used to write letters and they would leave them at the hotels for the people coming into town.”
Pardieck said she wanted to bring the program to Jackson and take a trip to the speedway last school year, but the COVID-19 pandemic prevented that from happening.
This year, the program worked out.
“Because of COVID, we weren’t able to do as many hands-on things in the classroom as we would have liked or group work or whatever, so being able to let them use, manipulate something with their hands and actually create it, it has been great,” Pardieck said.
Nearly 110 Jackson fourth-graders participated in the project, which took two and a half to three and a half weeks.
The lesson started with a pretest, and fourth grade teacher Heather Lewis said a lot of students weren’t familiar with the Indianapolis 500. They learned when the first race was and contributed to a timeline that was placed along a wall in the hallway with colored pictures of race cars and facts about race winners.
“We had enough for each kid to pick a driver and research,” Pardieck said. “Now, you ask them, ‘When did the race start?’ they could rattle off dates and drivers.”
In the classroom, the fourth-graders did math, science and writing related to the race.
A budgeting activity had the students as owners of a racing team with a sponsor and various amounts of money.
“They drew out credits,” Lewis said. “If they had a rookie driver and they drew a debit, they had to subtract $5,000 because they had to go to rookie training. But if they chose a veteran driver, they didn’t have to pay the $5,000.”
The students also learned none of the race cars are green because that color brings bad luck, and the winner of the race gets to pick a beverage to drink in victory lane. Many choose milk.
“The first driver drank buttermilk, and the kids didn’t know what that was,” fourth grade teacher Becky Miller said.
The project finale was making an Indiana-related shoebox at home that would represent a miniature 500 Festival Parade float. That’s where the students’ creativity and personalities were on full display.
Tenley Vest chose the Indiana University Hoosiers for her shoebox.
“I really like IU, and that’s where I want to go when I grow up, so I really wanted to do this one,” she said. “I really like Indiana and thought it was going to be really cool to make because there’s a lot of fun stuff about it.”
Colts fan Caydyn Parks made a football field on the top of his box complete with goal posts made out of yellow straws.
“I picked it because it was Indiana, of course, and it was my favorite team,” he said. “I was researching the Colts, and then I wrote how many games they’ve won and stuff like that.”
Since agriculture is a big part of Indiana, Lillian Westmoreland made a farm for her shoebox. She included toy farm animals.
“I chose that because there are a lot of farms in Indiana,” she said.
Natalie Bare’s grandmother lives in Plymouth, where the Marshall County Blueberry Festival takes place, so she highlighted that on her shoebox.
“I’ve been to the blueberry festival. I don’t remember very much because it has been awhile, but I remember blueberry ice cream,” she said, smiling.
The teachers were impressed with the students’ work.
“Some of them were just so original,” Miller said. “Some of them asked if they could do Seymour, and I said, ‘Sure, that has to do with Indiana.’ One of my little girls, her grandfather was Larry McDonald (This Old Guitar Music Store), so she wanted to do it in honor of him. I thought that was so neat that she did that.”
Other local themes included the Seymour Oktoberfest, Seymour Swimming and John Mellencamp.
“I’m from Indiana, but I’m not from here (Seymour). Some of the kids, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh! I never would have thought of that’ because I’m not from here,” Pardieck said. “I even learned from the kids some of the things that they picked. We left it wide open, so that was neat to see where they fell, where they narrowed it down. It’s surprising what some of them create and how into it they get, even with it being done at home.”
Miller said the amount of time and effort the kids put into their projects was commendable.
“They get so creative. … It’s an expression of themselves,” she said. “I think their parents got involved, too, and saw how much that they appreciate what we do at school and how much they learn. I have learned so much.”
Lewis said one of her students doing virtual learning participated, too.
“It was super cute. He did a KFC bucket,” she said.
Fourth grade teacher Madeline Schmitt said it was good for all of the school’s students to walk by and see the shoeboxes.
“Every kid that comes by and looks, they are like, ‘Oh my gosh! This is so cool’ and so into it,” she said.
The fourth-graders also got to color their own race flag, and they even got to do a Zoom call with IndyCar driver Stefan Wilson, who is the nephew of Jackson teacher Karen Robertson.
Miller said many of the students expressed interest in watching the race qualifications last weekend and the actual race. The 105th running is Sunday.
“The kids are so engaged,” she said. “They absolutely love it.”
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For information about the 500 Festival and Indianapolis 500 Education Program, visit 500festival.com/youth/education-program/overview.
For information about Sunday’s Indianapolis 500, visit indycar.com/Schedule/2021/IndyCar-Series/Indianapolis-500.
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