Introduction

Students at the Nieman Enhanced Learning Center have received a grant from the Shawnee Mission Education Foundation.  The funded project, called CSI: Cemetery Scene Investigations, invites students to look at cemeteries as primary sources needing to be preserved.  Using current technologies students will answer an important question.  Why is the preservation of local cemeteries important?

Everything ages, especially monuments built by man! Depending on how long ago it was established, your local cemetery headstones, monuments, and important site buildings are aging. As these primary source documents age important information may be disappearing if no one is maintaining it.

The Cemetery Scene Investigation team will provide an in depth analysis of one or more local cemeteries, including cemeteries in Fairway Kansas, Shawnee Kansas, Overland Park, Kansas and Gardner, Kansas.   Scientific measurement tools and technically advanced equipment will be utilized to conduct a comprehensive study of the history and science involved in the aging of the cemetery. The CSI team members are involved in the investigation through study, questioning, discussion, examination, and making comparisons.  They will create a webpage or multimedia presentation with a thorough analysis of the cemetery scene. If the cemetery is neglected, overgrown, or otherwise showing aging that might be able to be prevented, CSI team members will create an action plan for preserving or restoring the cemetery.  In collaboration with local cemetery preservation societies, data will be gathered, analyzed, interpreted, and acted upon.

Thousands of cemeteries across the United States are disappearing due to building, erosion, weathering, vandalism, and general neglect. The CSI investigators will investigate local geology and geography as it affects a cemetery (including Antioch Pioneer Cemetery, the Fuller Cemetery in Gardner, St Joseph Catholic Cemetery in Shawnee and the Shawnee Indian Mission Cemetery or others of historical significance), as well as investigate the people buried in the cemetery. This information will then be added to a national database in order to preserve valuable historical information. Students are able to use computers in the classroom for word processing and internet searching, but rarely are they able to use technology in the field.  Hopefully by completing this project in the community students will understand how technology really works and how it benefits scientists, architects, historians and statisticians.