CHESAPEAKE — It’s an academic exercise that is taking Chesapeake students back in time and into another realm.

That’s what is happening as the talented and gifted students at Chesapeake Middle School delve into the Renaissance period to create their own medieval festival.

“One group will do heraldry, shields, what the colors mean and the animals are for the coat of arms,” Terry Montgomery, TAG teacher, said. “One group will look at the knights and what it takes to become a knight and how to make a coat of armor.”

The festival, set for Thursday, Nov. 3 and Friday, Nov. 4, is a project the TAG students do every other year alternating with the forensic unit they present.

Each morning there will be an opening event and then all the middle school students will choose to visit the various classes the TAG group is hosting. Among the topics for the classes will be Renaissance board games; the feuding between Mary, Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth I; Leonardo da Vinci; Henry VIII; and the inquisition.

When researching some of the principal players for that time, the students found the interpersonal relationships anything but dry.

“It is a big soap opera,” Montgomery said. “It is not quite as boring as they thought it would be.”

The event will end with a real life, albeit horseless, joust for the assembly.

“They learned that in the Renaissance period that is when the impetus began again on music, arts and learning for learning’s sake,” Montgomery said. “Really this is the beginning of our educational systems. That is why I think it is important. The kids have gotten a lot out of it because they think history is really boring but not when they start researching.”