One pearl of black history is still being cultivated.

        The $45 million National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, set to open in 2004 on the Cincinnati riverfront, will offer 158,000 square feet of educational resources.

        The center is developing teaching material on the Underground Railroad, some of which is expected to be online by Friday for use by educators, said Ernest Britton, center communications manager.

        “We'll be filling an important national need for students and teachers,” said Karen Regina, center manager of educational programs.

        Among the concepts for the museum:

        • An orientation theater with a giant screen.

        • The Boeing Flight to Free dom interactive theater, combining live actors, film and special effects to simulate the escape experience.

        • A two-story, pre-Civil War log slave jail.

        Some of the teaching materials on the Underground Railroad, paid for by the KnowledgeWorks Foundation, will be developed for elementary and secondary educators. A national committee of educators, historians and state-level administrators has been advising for more than two years on that project, said Barbara Glass of Glass Clarity Inc. in Xenia, Ohio.

        Center officials hope the materials will help students understand the plight of slaves trying to escape from the South along the Underground Railroad network during the 1800s.
       

Black history comes alive
Freedom Center develops lessons for students, teachers