Students know a lot about NM: Just ASK

RIO RANCHO — Jessica Gallegos is understandably proud of her New Mexico heritage, and if she’s as successful as she hopes she can be in the classroom, her 111 seventh-grade New Mexico history students might share that appreciation of where they live.

A native of Tesuque Pueblo, Gallegos has for the third spring in a row assigned her students projects for a “living map” of the Land of Enchantment. A large parcel of sand on the northwest portion of The ASK Academy recently became a map of the state, outlined and with the Rio Grande in blue, with 91 projects by her students found near their respective locations.

The Trinity Site, the VLA (Very Large Array), Roswell’s UFO heritage, White Sands, the “Big I,” and many more, including Camel Rock, an iconic spot not far from where Gallegos grew up. If she’d been in her class, she would’ve done a project on Tesuque Pueblo.

She told the Observer she had three favorites her students had built, in no particular order: The Blue Hole near Roswell, White Sands and Roswell. The VLA and the “Big I,” she said, hadn’t been done in the past.

And there was something new this year: Each display has a QR code, so anyone interested in learning more can easily do so. After all, there’s only so much you can learn from small models and these knowledgeable students.

“This is the final grade for New Mexico History,” she said, noting this annual project has been “more worthwhile and educational for them. … It’s my legacy project.”

She hopes her students will realize New Mexico, “for the beauty that’s in it,” as well as realizing how important it is to “know where you’re from and where you’re going.”

Although it’s her legacy project, her dream project would be to see a New Mexico tourism for teenagers publication. “There’s so many places to see,” she said. “(New Mexico) is a true melting pot of people and culture, deep-rooted in history.”