Why did our teacher keep finding rusty nails and shards of pottery every spring as she dug her vegetable garden?

When Mrs. Stabler, the grade five teacher at Millarville Community School, showed us, the grade 5's and Mrs. Thorne's grade 4 students, what she found, we became curious. How did they get there? Who left them there and why? We decided to look more closely at the artifacts from the garden and from home as a part of our study of Alberta's history and natural resources.

We found out that teachers and students at Holy Spirit School in Lethbridge were doing something similar with artifacts. St. Basil's School had recently closed and contained many artifacts that students in Holy Spirit School were going to research in order to archive the history of the school.

Their quest was similar to ours so we telecollaborated together to discover the stories. Each school created a web site so that we could compare local history and artifacts. This connection between our two projects, centered on the examination of the artifacts and their stories, helped us look at the hidden history of both communities.

Using on-line resources from Our Roots, interviews of local residents, scouring attics and basements for hints and clues, we uncovered some good evidence that there was more to the back-lot of our school than anyone suspected.