CAMBRIDGE -- Students at Galt Collegiate Institute in Cambridge created a garden of poppies on Tuesday, combining history and creativity ahead of Remembrance Day.

There were 75 poppies in the garden, all representing students from the school who died in the Second World War.

"My soldier, he was in the Royal Canadian Air Force," Grade 10 Logan Singh said.

Singh's history class looked at each soldier's life.

"He attended GCI, he was well-known, he was part of sports teams and clubs," Singh said.

Now, the soldier's memory is honoured with a poppy outside the school.

"I really wanted our students to make a connection, a personal connection," said Kristen Watson, head of the school's history department. "I think that was the most powerful moment, when I had one of my students say 'Oh my goodness, I grew up on the same street as this veteran.'"

Manufacturing students made the metal poppies for the project.

"Every student did make it theirs, from the way they cut it out to the way they pinned it with their hammer, to the way they put it together," manufacturing teacher Frank Huarte said.

The project was designed to help students connect with the past in a new and tangible way.

"The fact that they got to physically hold a poppy and the card with the picture or the name of the veteran, I feel like that's something they'll remember because they physically go to be part of the project," Watson said.

Around 1,200 students from the school enlisted during World War Two, and 78 of them died.

"To look back and understand that they are part of a long legacy of students and they can identify with those who made that sacrifice," Principal Bryan Lozon said.

Galt Collegiate Institute also served as a training facility for both the Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Canadian Air Force.

"In the case of the navy, for training engine room artificers and for the air force, in the training of aircraft mechanics," said volunteer archivist Jared Warren.

The students said they'll carry the lessons learned through the project into Remembrance Day and beyond.

"It's definitely going to change how I'm going to see Remembrance Day now, how I'm going to try to experience it every year," Grade 10 student Dominique Skomra said. "I'm definitely going to try to remember the students who attended my own school."