The opening of the National World War I Museum in Kansas City, Mo., comes at a time of growing interest in that period in history, museum officials and local history teachers say.

That interest led Kansas University to offer a class on the war next semester for the first time in years, said Norman Saul, a KU history professor who will teach the class.

Because of the classroom’s size, the course was limited to 50 students, Saul said. The class already is full, and there is a waiting list.

“From what I get in e-mails from students, they are interested in that period,” Saul said. “I also think it’s because they’ve taken the class on World War II and are looking for another one. World War II reflects back on World War I.”

Students at Free State High School who are studying American history recently finished a week of studies on World War I and the 1914-18 period, teacher Jason Pendleton said.

Teachers and school officials are considering taking students to the museum in the future, he said.

“We’ve talked about that. We’re very excited about what we have read (about the museum),” Pendleton said.

Teachers need to visit the museum first and talk with curators and exhibit designers to see how the museum benefits the students, Pendleton said. The imagery at museums can personalize events more than someone just speaking about them and showing photographs in a classroom, he said.

The museum, underneath the Liberty Memorial, is accepting visits from tour groups and schools, spokesman Eli Paul said. About 1,000 people visited the museum at its Dec. 2 opening.

The museum is projected to draw a paid attendance of up to 140,000 people in its first year, Paul said. There also are special events that will draw additional people, he said.

“What we’re finding is that people, before they come here, have an understanding of the war and an excellent appreciation afterward that there is a connection between their lives and our world today and World War I,” Paul said.

Students at Free State look at the war from the European perspective, including the concepts of militarism, nationalism and the alliance of nations, Pendleton said. The American perspective involves economics and how the United States became a creditor nation by providing resources mainly to the Allied war effort.

Volunteers at the museum can be found among the exhibits answering questions from visitors. Kelton Smith, a retired school teacher, is one of them. He tells visitors that much can be learned about today’s international situations from knowing what happened during World War I.

“A lot of the problems we have today are because of the peace treaty after the war and what led to World War II,” Smith said.

In addition to exhibits displaying uniforms, helmets, weapons and artillery pieces, there is a trench system that allows people to view parts of it by looking through peepholes or “head holes.”

After early troop movements in 1914, both sides reached a stalemate and dug trenches in which soldiers lived in and fought over for the next four years.

“Trenches were very confining, and we wanted to give that impression to people,” Paul said.

The museum has nearly 50,000 artifacts. Some are still in storage and will be rotated for display, Paul said. All but a small percentage of them have been donated, he said.

“The American Doughboy (the American soldier) was one of the best souvenir hounds in existence,” Paul said. “They scoured Europe for material that ended up being donated either by them or their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.”