Satya '31 took a deep breath as the doors opened to the Los Angeles Museum of Geography last Wednesday night. Around her, fellow seventh graders positioned themselves by the escape room, others beside the research displays, and the rest scattered at the gift shop and cafe. For the next two hours, they wouldn't just be students. They'd be museum curators, tour guides, and historians, ready to share what happens when curiosity meets purpose.

LAMoG is a biannual history project where 7th graders create a real-world museum. This semester, students explored the geography of the LA River. They traced its transformation from the devastating 1938 flood through the construction of concrete flood channels to the current debates over river restoration.

Students took charge of the entire museum operation, curating exhibits ranging from escape rooms to traditional displays and leading tours. "LAMoG is such a unique experience," Satya '31 said. "We had so many ideas going into the project, so it was amazing being able to bring them to life. It was hard at first for 60 students to all devote the same care and time into everything, but in the end, we all came together with the same goal of completing what we had started."

That sense of ownership and collaboration is exactly what history teacher Will Bellaimey hopes to achieve. "I've always been drawn to simulations where students step into authentic adult roles," he explains. "When they're doing work that feels real and purposeful, they become genuinely excited about developing the skills they need."

For LAMoG, this meant traveling to the LA River for fieldwork, visiting other museums for inspiration, reading primary sources, analyzing maps, and writing, all to help curate exhibits that would be engaging for their audiences. Mr. Bellaimey adds, "if they remember a few things about the city they live in, that's just a cherry on top."