Museum education officer Angela Verry said between 200 and 300 pupils from Queenstown Primary School, Arrowtown School and the Southern Lakes Christian School had been pivotal in pulling together the museum's latest exhibition, Speaking of Change 2 - Memories of the Wakatipu, 1950-2000.
Ms Verry said the museum presented Speaking of Change - Memories of the Wakatipu 1900-60 in the early 1990s as a major exhibition, based on oral history recordings with people born in the first quarter of the 20th century.
While the idea behind the current exhibition was the same, this time the interviewers were local children.
"Each participating class was asked to choose a person from our community and question them about what it was like to live in the Wakatipu from the 1950s through to the present day.
"After choosing their interview subject, the students developed questions to ask which were relevant to them.
"The questions are pertinent, topical and sometimes as interesting as the answers themselves - 'How did people carry their groceries home?' "'
In the days before electric blankets, how were beds warmed?'
"For students with no experience of corporal punishment, stories of the strap and cane have almost reached mythical status.
"Finally, could you imagine a time when Queenstown's entire population was less than the population of Queenstown Primary School in 2010?"
Ms Verry said the resulting answers formed Speaking of Change 2, which looked at various aspects of life in the Wakatipu from the 1950s as told by about 20 people, who shared anecdotes about growing up, living and working in the Wakatipu.
The children had compiled a "super-cute" storybook, complete with their own drawings, based on the stories they were told.
Some children had compiled two to three-minute videos, which would screen at the exhibition.
Also included in the exhibition would be a panel on the late Paddy Mathias, who died on May 19 this year.
Mr Mathias would have turned 97 on June 17.
"In terms of things that haven't changed, he was one of them," Ms Verry said.
• Speaking of Change 2 is open to the public until October 10.
