Ninety students in the Comparative Civilizations class at Maple Ridge secondary picked three countries for the project: Syria, Ukraine and Vietnam.
After researching the topic, students built a series of scenes in a classroom that explain the cause of the crisis in each country and what it looks like. They also show the movement of the people and the consequences of that movement.
“A refugee crisis doesn’t have to mean people leaving their country. It can also be internal movement [within the country],” explained Mark Beale, social studies teacher at MRSS and who teaches the comparative civilizations course.
It doesn’t even have to be a current crisis, he said.
The students also examined the refugee crisis as a result of the Vietnam War between 1955-1975.
The concept for the project was developed before Christmas and took four weeks to build.
It was open to the community Monday and Tuesday night and 150 people went through, including parents and members of the community who know it takes place the week before spring break.
All 1,500 students at the school also tour through the temporary museum.
The project was to be taken down on Thursday, although there was a power outage.