When the CIA Factbook was retired in February, a group of Maus Middle School students rolled up their sleeves and got to work. 

Meet the Maus Factbookers, sixth graders who are building their very own resource for information about countries and communities around the world.

The CIA Factbook was launched in the 1960s as a classified publication, and in the ’90s, it became unclassified and digital. For decades, students across the country — including Frisco ISD — used the CIA Factbook as a resource in world history classes.

So when sixth grader Pranav loaded the page and saw an error message, he was upset. He was in the middle of a project for class and needed a reliable place to gather information, and found himself at a dead end. 

He came to school the next day to tell his social studies teacher, Amy Ceritelli-Plouff, who already knew and was “really sad,” Pranav said.

“I was like, if I create a new version of the Factbook, it could give me more knowledge about more countries, and it would make Ms. Ceritelli feel better,” he said as his teacher laughed. “So that's why I proposed the idea to her.”

The CIA Factbook included details about countries’ economy, culture, education and other info. Pranav wanted his version to include the same — a big task for one student, so he recruited a few friends, Arjun  and Vedansh. The three boys became the founding members of the Maus Factbookers club.

Once the project earned clearance at the campus and administrative levels, Ceritelli-Plouff opened up membership to more students, and was flooded with volunteers. 

As part of Factbookers, students divide the work into categories such as information, charts, formatting and security. After the information team gathers details about each country using carefully vetted sources, the formatting team makes entries look polished and professional. Security team members ensure the Google Sites they’re working on are only accessible to club members, for now. 

In mid-May, the group was about a quarter of the way done. Some day soon, when it’s complete, the Maus Factbook may be a resource on more campuses, even the entire District.

That’s why many club members joined in the first place. Nesochi — who worked on the entry for Uruguay, “a very thriving country that doesn't get a lot of attention” —  said she wanted to help other students.

“I think it's hard looking for information for projects that's trustworthy, and you want to get a good grade,” she said. “The Factbook really helps because we studied all of this and we put it into this one site where people can just go and look and see what they need.”

While students drive the ambitious project, many adults helped it get off the ground, including principal Chakosha Powell, Maus digital learning coach Joshua Vaughn, librarian Lesley Roane, and secondary social studies coordinators Patience LeBlanc and Jeremiah Rush.

This has been a true passion project for Pranav and the club members, who have worked long hours in their free time to make it come together. 

“They work together amazingly well, better than many adults,” Ceritelli-Plouff said. “If issues come up, they come to me, and we figure out a plan on how to best work through it showing their amazing maturity and resolve to make this a cohesive, productive group.”

When the Factbookers advance to seventh grade next year, their teacher is sure the project will continue and grow even more.

“These kids truly make the world a better place and make me think how bright our future is with them in it,” she said.

Maus Factbookers

Pranav Potluri - president  

Vedansh Thakur - VP

Arjun Kottam - secretary   

Viviana Thumma - treasurer

Vadin Acharya

Aarav Balaji

Cade Bassham

Blake Boultinghouse

Benjamin Bui

Nesochi Enekwizu

Prahaas Ghanta

Siddharth Hegde

Eera Jaitley

Elsa Jit

Brandon Kha

Ryan Khanna

Kripa Khatti

Haru Morishige

Tyler Nguyn

Kovid Tomar

Nate Torockov

Shrika Voruganti