NC+History+Museum+Trip

Chelsea Bowman Story of North Carolina


 * Part I: **

As a visitor of the museum what part of the exhibit was your favorite and why? Did you find anything surprising in terms of our state's history?

This was the first time I had visited the museum and I was really surprised at how extremely large it was. From the very beginning I was intrigued by everything I looked at. Trying to decide what exhibit was my favorite is a really hard question. I think the Pirate exploration exhibit was my favorite. I always loved learning about this in school and I think my students would enjoy it as well. I was actively engaged in every exhibit and I felt like a kid again. It was cool to milk the cow and pick up the bucket to test my strength. Hands on activities are the best way to keep the students going through this museum. It was really easy for me to connect all of the events together in this museum. As soon as I walked in I was able to connect this museum to the class I took centered around North Carolina history. I think this museum is a great way to inform students about the state they live in. The only think I found particularly surprising was how many Native American tribes are still present in North Carolina.


 * Part II: **


 * 1) 1. How would you prep your students prior to their visit to the museum?

I would prep my students prior to the visit to the museum by having them create three to four questions they would like to know about North Carolina the day before we go. I will allow the students to try and answer the questions as the go throughout the museum. The day after we get back I will allow the students to share what the answers to their questions were. If they cannot figure out the answers then we will figure out the answers as a class.

 2. As a teacher how would you guide your students through the exhibits? (would you provide them with worksheets, scavenger hunt, what would they be looking for?)

As a teacher I will guide my students through the exhibits by creating an activity for them to finish the day after the field trip. I would want them to keep their questions they initially had in mind as well. I would love for the students to be able to create a scavenger hunt by the information they recall the next day. I don’t want them to follow a scavenger hunt but I would like them to keep in mind what they would write in a scavenger hunt. I will introduce what a scavenger hunt is before the trip and we can work on them after the trip is over. I collected the actually Gallery Hunt the museum provided and something that simple will suffice. I want the students to be actively participating but not worrying about answering certain questions. I will know if they went through the museum as an interested citizen by the information they choose to put in their scavenger hunt. I want them to be creative and pick what they found was most interesting; especially since not everyone will be interested in the same information and exhibits.

 3. Which sections of the exhibits would you focus on the most? Why?

I would definitely want them to focus on the Native Americans, Pirates, war letters, the Civil War, and the Jim Crow/Segregation exhibits. I chose these because I feel like these were covered in extent in my North Carolina history class. I found these to be the most intriguing and kept my attention. I was standing there reading everything that the pictures had to say because I wanted to see what I knew and didn’t know. I also think that these exhibits really shaped our state today and still do in several ways.

 4. What types of activities would you create while the students are visiting the museum? (be specific and provide concrete examples when possible)

The types of activities I would create while my students are visiting the museum would be:
 * Have the students brainstorm about why pirates stole and what they used the “treasure” for?
 * o How did it affect the economy during this time?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Let the students explore the map of Native Americans and they can figure out what their origin is
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">When they explore the pottery they can make inferences about what they say about different cultures today
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">I would love for my students to pick someone they read about along the way that was their favorite and write down specific attributes about the person
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">I would have them pay attention to the Raleigh News and Observer

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> 5. How would you extend the activities into the classroom?

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">I would extend these activities in the classroom with the first activity by comparing their answers and opinions to clips of the movie Pirates of the Caribbean. Have them talk about the pirates in the movie and the pirates they read about. Are they the same? How are they different? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The second activity would be fun for the students to share with the class by creating a huge map of North Carolina and having them pin their name to what tribe they would have belonged to back then. It can be displayed in the room the rest of the year. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The third activity could be a simple writing assignment. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The fourth activity I would want my students to use the person they picked to explore in detail and use what they learned about them and what the saw to form an opinion of what kind of person they probably were. I would like them to write a letter to themselves pretending to be this person. They should write who their friends, allies, and enemies were. Did they fight? Did they fight with weapons? Did they win/lose? What happened because of it? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The final activity could result in comparing and contrasting the Raleigh News and Observer to today’s Raleigh News and Observer.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> 6. What questions or concerns might you have as a teacher taking a group of students to a museum with vast exhibits? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">I have a couple of concerns about my students becoming overwhelmed with how much information is within this museum. There is a lot to take it and it can take a while to get through all of it if you are actively participating and reading the majority of the descriptions. I would be concerned about them misbehaving and causing a scene. If I have good classroom management I will reassure them that the same behavior rules apply to the museum as well.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Part III: **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Create an activity and/ or a question guide for your students to __#|complete__ if they were to visit the exhibit.(Be creative!!!)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">An activity that I would have my students complete if they were to visit the exhibit would be a diary entry.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">To begin the activity the students will need to take a picture (with my instant polaroid camera) with a certain person, picture, activity, etc. that stood out to them while visiting the museum. Since I will only have a couple of cameras they will have to this activity at the very end. The students will need to pay specific attention to the details about what they have picked and why they chose it as well.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">With their picture they will write a diary entry that correlates with their picture. They can be extremely creative in this diary entry because they can pretend to be the person, own the object, fight in the battle, etc. This is open to creative ideas as long as it is taken from the museum.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Some examples would be: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This activity has endless possibilities because I want the students to pick what they found to be the most memorable about this museum. They can share these with the class by posting their written entries and pictures around our classroom.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">A picture beside the Native American hut
 * o <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The student would write a diary entry about what is was like to build this hut.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">A picture of the pirates treasure chest
 * o <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The student would write a diary entry about what they would want their treasure chest to insist of and what they would have done to stay out of trouble as a pirate.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">A picture with the stools from the Greensboro sit in
 * o <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The student would write a diary entry pretending to be a student that participated in this sit in and what they were feeling at the time and what happened in result of this act.