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The Freeborn County Historical Museum, Library and Village came alive with students Wednesday on what was the final day of Discover History Days this year.

The program allows Albert Lea High School teacher Jim Haney’s 11th and 12 graders to learn about area history from the late 1850s to early 1900s with the guidance of adult mentors and then to go back out and teach what they learned to fifth graders.

The high schoolers began learning about their various topics weeks ago, and the school visits started last week. Wednesday was the final day for the elementary school students to visit.

Stephanie Kibler, executive director of the museum, said the biggest benefit she sees from the program is the multi-generational reach — starting with the fifth graders who attend and working up to the juniors and seniors who teach, the school staff and finally the advisers, many of whom are retired teachers.

“You get to see the love of history through all these generations,” she said.

Students from seven schools participated this year, and she said that equated to just under 300 fifth graders and 135 juniors and seniors over the course of the four days of visits, she said.

There were close to 20 adult advisers over 12 stations.

Daphne Hamborg was one of those advisers, who watched over the students teaching about the log cabin and Victorian home. She said this was her third year as a mentor.

“I love history, and I’ve always been involved with history,” Hamborg said. “It’s a wonderful program.”

The log cabin was the first to be built in Freeborn County near Gordonsville and was moved to the museum.

Seniors Emma Prihoda and Jordan Habana led the group Wednesday at the log cabin and Victorian home.

Emma said she learned through preparing to teach the fifth graders how “hands-on” the people at that time were with building.

The teenagers showed the younger students what the inside of the log cabin looked like, explaining it would have been home to a dozen people.

Outside, they demonstrated how clothes at that time would have been washed.

Students also got the opportunity to practice chinking, or putting the mud in between logs, just as would have been done when building a log cabin.

Nearby, as students learned about the barbershop, they could be seen taking part in a popular activity: learning how to shave their classmates using the back side of a plastic knife.

The students in that rotation also got to learn about photography through the years, as well as the jail and the bank.

It is the 26th year for the program.