KSHB 41 reporter Claire Bradshaw covers eastern Jackson County, including Blue Springs and Grain Valley. Share your story idea with Claire.
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Around 350 seventh-grade students from Grain Valley's two middle schools have spent the last two weeks exploring a traveling Smithsonian exhibit focused on American democracy.
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The exhibit, titled "Voices and Votes: Democracy in America," arrived in Grain Valley earlier this fall through Missouri Humanities and will remain in the community through December 13. KSHB 41 News previewed one of the exhibits during Let's Talk Grain Valley.
"I saw a little bit about the Declaration of Independence, little bit about the Boston Massacre and a lot about rights," said Beckett Nolte, a seventh-grade student at Grain Valley North Middle School.
Fellow seventh-grader Zyra Joy Bautista said the exhibit helped her understand historical events better.
"We're seeing how like how it went and like what happened during the wars and stuff," Bautista said.
The exhibit's timing in Grain Valley aligns with the students' current classroom curriculum, making it an ideal educational field trip opportunity.
Nick Lopez, program coordinator for Missouri Humanities, explained the exhibit's structure and educational value.
"So first off, it starts with the first section, which is the leap of faith, which is our Founding Fathers, developing the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence. Then it goes into focusing on legislation, protest, petitioning. What are your responsibilities as a citizen and really just the overall history of American democracy," Lopez said.
It also includes two locally focused exhibits. One goes over the history of transportation in Grain Valley and Jackson County. The other focuses on the impact a hardware store fire had on a vote to get public water.
The Grain Valley Historical Society and Chamber of Commerce applied for the touring exhibit with these seventh-grade field trips as a central focus of their grant application. The school district wrote a letter in support for the application.
High school civics classes are scheduled to visit the exhibit next week, continuing the educational programming that made Grain Valley's application successful.
The exhibit is open to the general public on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Missouri Humanities is also collecting donations at the historical society after it recently lost federal funding. Any donations made will be matched by the Federation of State Humanities Councils with support from the Mellon Foundation, up to $50,000.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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