Southwest Middle School students Ting Ting, left, and Madelyn Johnson, both sixth-graders, set up their Chinese zodiac display Wednesday in the lobby of the Lied Center. Students at Southwest have been preparing Chinese culture displays to coincide with performances this month at the Lied Center, including the National Acrobats of the People’s Republic of China Chinese on Oct. 21. The students’ work is available for public viewing.

An upcoming performance from The National Acrobats of the People’s Republic of China won’t be the only entertainment available Friday evening at the Lied Center.

On your way into the show — or during intermission, or on your way back from the restroom — be sure to check out educational exhibits created by students at Southwest Middle School.

About 40 enrichment resource students from the school have researched and fabricated six exhibits for placement in the center’s lobby and other areas.

(To see students putting their work in place, check out Mike Yoder’s video. The Lied Center also has posted a photos set on Flickr.)

There’s a Chinese garden, animals of the Chinese zodiac, a collection of Beijing opera masks and more — all created by students in guided studies for all to see.

“They’ve gotten really excited making these things,” reports Dani Lotton-Barker, their teacher.

It’s all part of the center’s China Festival, which opens at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the center with artists from the Kansas City Chinese Association providing free performances and demonstrations. That continues until 7:30 p.m., with the National Acrobats taking the stage for their show, for which tickets remain available.

And don’t worry: The Southwest students aren’t done learning about China.

“Next semester we want to build a to-scale model of the Great Wall of China — out of Legos,” Lotton-Barker says.

•••

Lights. Camera. Education.

Filming is set for today at Woodlawn School, where Lori Sinclair’s third-grade classroom is set to be the subject of an upcoming video feature on The Teaching Channel, a nonprofit organization that describes itself as “a video showcase — on the Internet and TV — of inspiring and effective teaching practices in America’s schools.”

Jim Knight, of Kansas University’s Center for Research on Learning, is leading the video effort. Knight is a researcher and leader in instructional coaching who has worked with the Lawrence school district to help develop of the district’s learning coach model for professional development.

The Teaching Channel is available on PBS, Facebook, on Twitter, and on YouTube.