TEMECULA -- What's the best way to immortalize great Americans? With a museum or library? A plaque on a wall? A statue in a park?

For the last nine years, students in Darren Thomas' Advanced Placement history classes at Chaparral High School have been enshrining members into the American Hall of Fame in the form of Mr. Potato Head.

The figures are atop cabinets and shelves in Thomas' classroom.

The 2007 inductees, honored at a ceremony June 6, were Clara Barton and Frederick Douglas. Their likenesses, created using the popular toy, join Rosa Parks, Thomas Edison, Earl Warren, Lyndon Johnson, Mark Twain, Jane Addams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Clay, John Marshall, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Thomas Jefferson, Harriet Tubman and Andrew Carnegie in the Hall of Fame.

Inducted into the Hall of Shame was Sen. Joseph McCarthy. He joins Nathaniel Forrest, the founder of the Ku Klux Klan, Aaron Burr and Boss Tweed as spuds of infamy.

About 150 students are involved in the project, doing everything from designing the figures, performing or speaking at the induction ceremonies to creating PowerPoint presentations and display boards and working on various committees.

"I was looking for something for the end of the year," Thomas said of the genesis of the project. "The AP test is in May, so I was looking for something exciting and fun. I was looking for a balance of fun and serious."

Thomas said that by the time students take the AP test in early May, they have already covered all of the curriculum for the course. But with a month left in the school year, they need something to do.

"We've already studied everything during the course of the year," Thomas said. "The course is so difficult. This is kind of a reward. We lighten it up for a while. They lead a very stressful life, (I figure) let's play with the material for a while."

What began as a simple event has grown into a major project that incoming students look forward to, Thomas said.

"One of the first things we did was ask 'What's up with the Potato Heads,'" junior Jake Simon said. "We've been building toward this all year. It's a culmination of all we've learned. The AP test is the biggest academic thing, this brings everything together and lets us enjoy the subject."

Students nominate people who have had a lasting effect on the country then discuss each candidate's merits before voting for the enshrines.

Thomas said there is often great debate, never more than with Lyndon Johnson, who was lauded for improving civil rights, but criticized for the Vietnam War.

Juniors Kylie Fuller, Nicole Choi, Ana Bondoc, Sherry Pinneo and Alex Cropino were working on the McCarthy Potato Head last week. His figure was holding a blacklist containing such names as Tom Cruise, Marilyn Monroe, Johnny Depp, Madonna and Lucille Ball.

The girls admitted they didn't know a lot about blacklisted celebrities from the 1950s, so they chose some more controversial names.

Kylie said she enjoyed being able to get creative with history.

"We learned so much this year," she said. "It's fun to be able to pull out important aspects of history.