Portage Collegiate students had a unique experience with the Fort la Reine Museum this week contributing to their history and social science education.

Larry Smith is the social science department head and a history teacher. He says three of his classes took in the virtual tour this week.

"We just received an email from our vice principal Lawrence McKenzie and said that Fort la Reine was offering this kind of unique opportunity of a virtual field trip," says Smith. "And the topic was related to the Spanish flu. I thought it sounded intriguing since that's basically where we were in the Canadian history course. We had just finished the unit on World War I, and that was just the natural progression in terms of where the course was headed. So, I thought I would investigate it a little further and contacted Madison Connolly at the museum and found out some more details."

Smith explains how important it is for students to learn about the century-old pandemic now that we're experiencing somewhat of the same thing during COVID.

"Any time in history class that we can sort of connect anything that's happening in the present, that's certainly our goal," notes Smith. "And this certainly lent itself to that with COVID-19. There were so many similarities to what we learn from the presentation with the Spanish flu back in 1919 that the students were very interested in that, and almost fascinated that there are just so many similarities between the two."

He says the reality of what's actually happening amidst rumours of a fake pandemic hit home knowing that 100 years ago people were wearing masks as we are today.

"You look at their faces --- they're sitting there wearing masks in the classroom, and then they're seeing pictures of people wearing masks back then," continues Smith, "and all of the newspaper clippings about banning public gatherings, and the public health restrictions. Just the various waves of the Spanish flu were kind of what we're going through right now. Just the fact that it's a global pandemic and the strain on the health care system, made it so impactful. There are just so many similarities that it was such an excellent learning opportunity for the students."

Smith explains the virtual aspect of the event allowed the students to remain in the school classroom and take part by a Zoom link.

"I thought it was very well done," adds Smith. "I had three classes that actually did it today (Thursday) and they would explain different aspects of the exhibit that they had. Instead of seeing it in person, you actually did get to see it virtually. They provided background information to what the exhibits were and what the topic at hand was. And then, at the end of the presentation, we had a Jeopardy game where we broke the students into two teams and just had some fun with it. We checked their knowledge, and every one of the students did very well on it."

Smith says he wants to commend museum executive director Madison Connolly and the staff at Fort la Reine for reaching out to the schools and providing the learning opportunity in a different way, noting they're not allowed to take field trips for the time being.