RUMFORD — The sounds of students singing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and a steady drumbeat and flute signifying the march of Civil War soldiers were heard at Mountain Valley Middle School on Wednesday.

The activities marked the end of the first trimester of Quest, a program to improve attendance and get students more engaged in learning.

“It’s exciting to see the kids showing products of their learning,” Principal Ryan Casey said.

One-third of the students did Civil War projects, another third studied science, technology, engineering and math, and the rest devoted the trimester to career exploration.

Each group will switch to one of the other topics during the second 12-week trimester, then to the remaining topic for the third trimester.

Eighth-grader Christopher Smalley was singing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” accompanied on guitar by seventh-grader Evan Weston.

The two researched the song, the writer, Julia Ward Howe, and how she and the Civil War marked the beginning of the women’s movement.

“The song is the same as ‘John Brown’s Body,'” Smalley said.

Seventh-graders Maia Belskis played the flute while Kaylee Arsenault struck the drum for the march.

“The Civil War was a lot more terrible than I had thought,” Arsenault said.

Many other projects were displayed on paper or on an iPad, such as an overview of Mathew Brady photographs of the the Civil War.

At the science section, many students were applying physics formulas to their favorite sports. Eighth-graders Ariana Viger and Ashly Rodriguez created a poster and video showing the laws of motion in gymnastics.

“It was fun,” Rodriguez said. “We worked together and learned how to create a movie.”

In teacher Lisa Drapeau’s career explorations classroom, students created posters and scrapbooks showing where they had been, using photos of family, where they are now and what they hope to be doing in the future.

Drapeau said before youngsters can decide what they want for the future, they have to know who they are now. Besides the projects, she said, students took a series of surveys that gauged their learning styles.

Sa’lyn Knowlton, an eighth-grader, has her future pretty well mapped out, she said. After college, she wants to go to medical school, do a four-year residency and become a psychiatrist.

“I like making people  happy, and I want a career that will make me happy,” she said.

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