A group of fathers and sons have been meeting in Maple Ridge during the past few months to learn about Canadian history, but it's a far cry from memorizing facts from textbooks - at the end of the course the father-son pairs will have built a diorama depicting a scene from the Second World War.

Todd Farion teaches a course called Hands on History at Southgate Church in Maple Ridge. Pairs of fathers and sons have been meeting weekly to build dioramas of scenes - "snapshots" - from the Second World War in 1/35 scale.

At the end of the course, the children have to talk about their diorama.

"I've never encountered a child who didn't eloquently speak [about their diorama]," Farion said.

Farion, a self-described "avid history buff," starts each class with a history lesson, and then the participants get to work on their projects.

"I've always been passionate about World War Two history," he said. He has also been building models for about 40 years and a few years ago decided to combine these two passions.

It started when he was building a model with his daughter about six years ago, and then someone asked him to start teaching history modelling courses in Abbotsford, where he lives.

He has taught the course at various learning institutes since then, including the Traditional Learning Academy in Abbotsford.

"It just got a life of its own - the reputation just spread," he said.

Primarily, it's mothers who are home-schooling their children who come to Farion's courses. The children taking it are usually between eight and 15 years old.

"I've had eight-year-olds turning out models that look incredible," Farion said.

The parents also get excited about building the dioramas, Farion said, with women going "crazy" over the terrain while men enjoy the machinery, for example, the tanks.

A while ago, someone at his church in Maple Ridge suggested his Hands on History course could be a good father-son activity, so he's running it for the second time here in Maple Ridge. Many participants add their own elements based on personal histories.

One mother, who took the course with her daughter, spent some time talking with her Dutch parents about what it was like in Holland during the war and that added elements to their project.

At the current course, the diorama created by the Pires father and son team has included actual sand from the beaches of Normandy brought home by Miguel's oldest son, Keanu, who recently returned from a vacation in Europe.

While there Keanu, who is not part of the class, toured Juno beach and gathered the sand.

To build their dioramas, the participants use scale models and figures, scale buildings, cobblestone streets, dirt, grass, rubble and trees as well as paint, sculpting material, plaster, paper maché Styrofoam and chicken wire.

Farion points out in his course outline that Canada sent one million citizens overseas to serve in the Second World War out of a population of 11 million, which was the largest per capita commitment in the war.

When the dioramas are finished, Farion plans to take them to the Branch 88 Legion and present them to the vets.

"It will drive support for the vets and that's what it's all about," Farion said. "We should show our appreciation to vets."

Farion has also been nominated for the Governor-General's Excellence in Teaching Canadian History award.