Appalachian Teaching Project

2017 Projects & Participants

(In Order of Presentation)

Crystal City Marriott at Reagan National Airport 

Friday, December 1, 2017 _________________________________________________________________

 

 

9:00 am – East Tennessee State University

Rocky Fork State Park: Linking Natural and Economic resources through Oral Histories and 

Community Engagement

Description: ATP students from ETSU partnered with Rocky Fork State Park, Tennessee’s newest state 

park, which is located in Unicoi County. Students explored historic and current land use of the area that now 

includes the park by collecting oral histories. Of particular interest were local residents who were affiliated 

with the logging industry, which was very active in the area in the past. These oral histories also reflected

current and changing community concerns regarding environmental and economic sustainability and land use 

surrounding the park. Additionally, the oral history narratives fostered continued community interest and 

participation in Rocky Fork’s development as an aspect of broader economic sustainability within the 

community.

Students built on this work to identify strategies to further develop the park as a sustainable economic and 

cultural asset, a goal that is part of Unicoi County’s efforts to honor local culture and broaden economic 

diversification.

Q&A Leaders – Zane State College

9:15 am – Frostburg State University

Establishing the Jane Gates Heritage House 

Description: Frostburg State University ATP students partnered with the newly established Jane Gates 

Heritage House to document its establishment and host public outreach opportunities to help determine how 

this recently established center for African American History can best serve the community. The project 

hoped to show how a fuller understanding of Appalachian culture and history, which recognizes the deep 

legacy of African American heritage, can help to overcome racial division and forge a renewed sense of 

community cohesiveness in western Maryland and the surrounding region.

ATP students studied the impact of the Gates family and the lasting influence of western Maryland’s African 

American population; digitally documented the Center’s establishment; and recorded founders’ visions for the 

Center’s future. Drawing largely from those materials, students co-hosted informational meetings in 

Cumberland, Frostburg, and Westernport inviting input for the Center. Students developed digital versions 

of their findings for inclusion in the Heritage House’s archives.

Q&A Leaders – Appalachian State University

Developing Natural and Cultural Assets
2

 

 

9:30 am –University of Tennessee

Night Comes to the Cumberlands...and It’s Awesome: Promoting Night Sky Conservation and 

Development in the Upper Cumberland 

Description: The 2017 University of Tennessee ATP class worked with the staff of Pickett Civilian 

Conservation Corps (CCC) Memorial State Park in Fentress County, TN to improve and promote dark sky 

facilities and programming. Pickett State Park is currently Tennessee’s most active dark sky destination. The 

park has been conducting dark sky activities for the past four years and was recently awarded silver level 

certification by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA). 

Park staff was the main partner during this effort, but UT students also reached out to additional 

stakeholders, including regional amateur and professional astronomers, local elected officials, park neighbors 

and the Upper Cumberland Development District.

ATP students focused on community outreach. Activities included studying similar educational programs in 

peer communities and exploring educational resources available at NASA's Marshall Space Flight 

Center Educator Resource Center in Huntsville, AL. Students also reached out to local astronomy clubs and 

businesses to determine interest levels and assets. Finally, using their project findings, students created an 

outreach and engagement plan that included engagement strategies, funding sources, recommendations, and 

potential business opportunities.

 

 Q&A Leaders – Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College

 

 

10:30 am –University of North Georgia

Scrolling through History: Using digital storytelling to deliver social studies content to classrooms in 

Appalachian Georgia 

Description: In Year 2 of our project to increase the interpretive capacity of The Foxfire Museum and 

Heritage Center, two new community partners were added to digitize and package last year's arts-based 

research about agricultural traditions and deliver it to Appalachian classrooms via the web: The Northeast 

Georgia History Center and The College of Education at the University of North Georgia. This new 

collaboration among organizations that have never worked together before leveraged the Appalachian 

Regional Commission’s investment in northeast Georgia’s cultural, educational, and heritage assets.

Last year’s ATP students used narrative inquiry as a research methodology, they wrote an original script that 

highlighted major themes, and finally, created a “crankie,” a long scroll illustrated with delicate paper cuts that 

is wound in a wooden box and hand-cranked while the story is told. This year, UNG College of Education 

students worked with their community partners to digitize and package the crankie performance into social 

studies content for Appalachian classrooms. The Northeast Georgia History Center used its production 

facilities to produce a “webisode,” a short documentary that teachers can download on demand and the ATP 

students packaged the social studies unit by adding pre- and post-activities aligned with Georgia Performance 

Standards.

 

Q&A Leaders – Radford University

Investing in Regional Public Schools
3

 

10:45 am – Fairmont State University

Appalachian Childhood Empowerment through Heritage Arts 

Description: Fairmont State University students collaborated with a school in the Marion County School 

District to develop a childhood enrichment program centered on creating a sense of pride, identity, and 

confidence through achievement in Appalachian traditional arts. The intent of this ATP project was to bring

the known benefits of early-childhood enrichment through the arts to children in an economically depressed 

area using heritage Appalachian arts and skills. The process was contextualized within the history of 

Appalachia as a region of resiliency with a tradition of using one’s own skills and abilities to make a better life. 

Gaining tangible skills can help young children develop a sense of agency and achievement and a belief in 

their ability to affect their own lives. 

ATP students worked with the school and at least two traditional arts practitioners to teach the skills and 

traditions to children and teachers and developed a prototype program centered on these heritage arts for 

continued use by schools.

 

 Q&A Leaders – Alfred State College

 

 

11:00 am – Auburn University 

Macon County Veterans Oral History Project in collaboration with students at Tuskegee Public 

School 

Description: Building on the relationship established with Tuskegee Public School during the 2016-17 

project cycle, Auburn University ATP students mentored sixth graders in the skill and process of interviewing 

military veterans and producing digital content as part of the Library of Congress Veterans Oral History 

Project. The Veterans Oral History Project provides volunteers an opportunity to collect oral history 

interviews that are added to a national collection and made available to the public via the Internet. During

project, ATP students honed their interview skills, which are transferrable to many employment situations, 

and in turn helped develop similar skills in the sixth-grade students with whom they performed the 

interviews. 

The ATP students and sixth graders recorded and produced interviews on a dedicated web page built by 

students, and they prepared files for delivery to the Library of Congress. Tuskegee Public School students 

joined ATP students by Skype and presented their work while ATP students physically handed the files over 

to the Library.

Q&A Leaders – University of Pittsburgh at Bradford

 

 
4

Appalachian Teaching Project

2017 Projects & Participants

(In Order of Presentation)

Crystal City Marriott at Reagan National Airport 

Saturday, December 2, 2017 ___________________________________________________________________________

9:00 am – Zane State College

Downtown Zanesville: A Bridge to Our Past 

Description: Zane State College ATP students collaborated with the Zanesville-Muskingum County 

Chamber of Commerce, Zanesville Public Service Commission, and local historians to create an interactive 

downtown walking tour in order to stimulate both local and outside tourism and to promote engagement 

with local youth. Students used an existing map, advice from community partners, and their own research to 

decide what to include on the interactive walking tour. Once research was completed, students downloaded 

information into the Munzee app and placed coordinating scan codes at each location. 

The central focus of the project was to engage the community, especially youth, in the history within a tenblock walking distance of the city center in order to foster pride, knowledge, and connection with the region’s 

heritage. Currently, the designated area is often bypassed and overlooked by locals and tourists alike as they 

choose to explore outside the community with competing tourist attractions and events. ATP students 

planned to establish an energizing and interesting walk in the city in order to encourage community growth 

and pride.

 Q&A Leaders – Auburn University

9:15 am – Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College

Planning Our Future The Harlan County Project: Phase 17 

Description: Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College (SKCTC) ATP students collaborated

with the Harlan County Community Foundation in an ongoing strategic planning process focusing on 

downtown development in Harlan County. This collaboration was initiated by the donation of a building in 

downtown Harlan to the Harlan County Community. SKCTC has also applied for an ARC Flex-E grant 

through the Brushy Fork Institute to engage the community and to develop a community-based plan for 

downtown development that incorporates the donated building. 

As part of the planning process, ATP students studied best practices from similar communities, attended

planning meetings, produced a written analysis of downtown Harlan, and presented research-grounded ideas 

for community development strategies. The students’ work was incorporated in the final report and plan 

produced by the community coalition. Some SKCTC ATP students were part of the leadership presenting 

the findings of the group to the larger community. 

 

 Q&A Leaders – East Tennessee State University

 

Downtown Development and Community Leadership
5

 

 

9:30 am – Alfred State College

Connecting Built and Natural Environments: A Vision for Preservation, Sustainability and Growth 

in Canaseraga, New York 

Description: ATP students partnered with the Town of Burns and Village of Canaseraga. Working 

individually and in small groups, students documented the subject area and completed a Neighborhood 

Development Analysis, which included a visual survey of the defined neighborhood pattern and design of the 

existing community.

The information generated was used as a point of departure to illustrate a positive vision for preservation, 

sustainability, and growth of the Village of Canaseraga through community engagement. The overall goal for 

student engagement with the community was to develop an inclusive Community Visualization Study that 

includes a series of design interventions based on the 2014 Comprehensive Plan for the Town of Burns and the 

Village of Canaseraga. The study included a series of before and thematic after images intended to help 

stakeholders envision possibilities for future development. Implementation will be possible through grant 

funding that will require the community to have a clearly defined vision to supplement the recently adopted 

comprehensive plan.

Q&A Leaders – Fairmont State University

10:30 am – Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Northern Appalachian Foodways: Sustainability and a Seat at the Table 

Description: ATP students from the Anthropology of Food class assisted their community partners, the 

Downtown Indiana Business Improvement District and the Food Co-Op of Indiana County, in gathering 

local recipes and publishing a cookbook that will be sold to support food justice initiatives in the community. 

These initiatives included the goal of addressing the “food desert” that has been identified in downtown 

Indiana by establishing an outlet for healthy, local produce and food items.

Students studied the many foodways of the Appalachian region and identified local “memory keepers” who 

were raised in the county and could recount the food systems of their childhoods. More specifically, student 

and community participants aimed to create an inclusive food history project that could help to unify the 

town and university as they worked together to connect the past to the present and record the foodways of 

Northern Appalachia. The project hoped to create an interconnected food history of Indiana that can be 

engaged through the cookbook, which, in turn, will create networks between residents, the university, visitors, 

the past, and the envisioned future of the community.

Q&A Leaders – University of Tennessee

Enhancing Health and Quality of Life in Appalachia
6

10:45 am – University of Pittsburgh at Bradford

Bradford Community Immunization Access: Bridging the Gap 

Description: In 2016-2017, University of Pittsburgh at Bradford students began the important work of 

assessing the feasibility of a Vaccine Access Network for the Bradford Community. The analysis of last year’s 

data revealed that, while the project has support from the community to move forward, the voices of midlevel providers, viewed as key stakeholders, were largely omitted from the initial efforts. In addition, project 

leaders have recognized that a more comprehensive assessment of current community resources was needed. 

The 2017 ATP students, in partnership with the Mckean County Collaborative Board, incorporated input 

from mid-level providers and other key stakeholders, cataloged current resources, developed strategies for the 

creation of a community Vaccine Access Network, and developed strategies for community and provider 

education to enhance identified assets and reduce identified barriers to immunization within the Bradford, PA 

community. Feedback and assistance was sought from the full board to assist with moving the project 

forward during formal student presentations at the MCCB Annual Meeting.

Q&A Leaders – University of North Georgia

11:15 am – Radford University

Clinch River Valley Initiative (CRVI) Building Social and Economic Capital in Southwest Virginia 

with Oral History Collecting 

Description: Radford University continued its collaboration from 2016-17 with the Clinch River Valley 

Initiative (CRVI), a multi-member grassroots organization comprised of several Southwest Virginia counties, 

to collect oral histories, or river stories, from individuals who have grown up along the Clinch River. 

Students asked interviewees about their education and work history, about what life was like growing up 

along the Clinch River, how life has changed over time, their recreational activities in or near the river, as well 

as their relationship with the river.

The project hoped to bolster community pride, identity, and sense of place. The collected stories will result 

in a book to be sold at Clinch River venues and online to both locals and tourists. Select audio clips from the 

interviews will be used in kiosks along the Clinch River. Radford’s ATP students hope that these activities 

will also help to support CRVI’s goals to 1) Offer environmental education to people of all ages and 2) 

Revitalize and market downtowns along the river, boosting entrepreneurial opportunities. 

 

 Q&A Leaders – Frostburg State University

11:30 am – Appalachian State University

Assessing Riparian Health and Land Use on the New River of Ashe County, NC 

Description: ATP students partnered with the New River Conservancy and the New River State Park 

(NRSP) to prioritize projects by providing deeper knowledge in three areas: understanding the extent of land 

subdivision along the New River, assessing the need for restorative work along riverbanks, and determining 

public interest in recreational tourism development.

Tourism Development of Regional Waterways
7

Students surveyed the number and state of undeveloped lots along the river. They canoed along 

approximately 10 miles of the New River with GPS and cameras to create a geo-locatable database of riparian 

health conditions along the riverbanks, and surveyed the general public at high-traffic recreational areas in the 

NRSP to assess public interest in conservation and development. This data provided useful information to 

assist the community partners in project planning and prioritization.

 

 Q&A Leaders – Indiana University of Pennsylvania