Educating Children about History at the NC Museum of History

Yesterday, I had the privilege of joining my class for a field trip at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh. Having gone through undergraduate school thinking that my calling was the field of public history (educating the public about history through museums, historic sites, historic literature, memorials, historic buildings, etc.), I felt a little bit nostalgic visiting the museum that I had been to so many times while a student at UNC. Nonetheless, this trip made me very excited on getting to teach students about social studies and different cultures.

We began our visit to the museum by being introduced to Debra Nichols and Jessica Pratt, two experts working in the Education and Outreach departments of the museum. While a classroom was being prepared for us and a computer presentation was being set up, Mrs. Nichols took us to the third floor of the museum, where we explored a photo exhibit that portrayed North Carolinians during the Great Depression. The exhibit featured photographs of children of all ages, workers in different trades, and people of all socio-economic standings. Students can listen and watch a video and they can explore all of the photos. I think that allowing students to explore this exhibit would be ideal in educating them about children their age and what they were going through during that hard time in our nation's history.

After viewing the photograph exhibit, we went back downstairs to the classroom, where we listened to a presentation about the educational resources available for teachers and students. We learned about a resource packet that is available online that makes many resources and information about field trips and tours available to teachers. We were also shown kits that can be mailed to classrooms that include lesson plans, artifacts and other activities for students to engage with in their own classrooms. One opportunity for students that I found very fascinating was the TarHeel Junior Historian program. This program invites students from 4th to 12th grade to enter into essay contests, art contests and other contests. It directly involves students in the museum and they have a conference for all members where they recognize the participants of the many different contests. Assuming I will be teaching 4th, 5th, or 6th grade, I plan to adamantly advertise this opportunity in my classroom and get all of my students involved in the contests. Later during our tour, we viewed an exhibit of all of the students who had been awarded in the different contests. In fact, the "Chapter of the Year" for the program just happened to come from the elementary school that I attended, Morehead City Elementary School!!

The exhibits we explored during our tour were excellent and enthralling. One that stood out the most to me was the Native American exhibit that featured a re-created Indian woman whose remains had been found and transported to Chapel Hill so that museums could create molds of her actual skull. This model was so life-like, and it would give students a feel of what Native Americans in North Carolina actually looked like. The clothing and jewelry she was wearing are also indicative of Native American life. Other exhibits we were able to view were the sports hall of fame, a 1920s drug store, an extensive exhibit of Thomas Day's historic cabinets and furniture, and a Jewish North Carolinian main exhibit. Each of these had so much to offer to young students; each provided interactive pieces such as tapes that students could listen to or videos that they could watch. In fourth grade, learning about the history, geography and people of North Carolina is key, but it is very important in other grades as well, as they learn about their community, their civic rights, the economy, and history in general. I thoroughly enjoyed this trip the the North Carolina Museum of History, and I will definitely be taking my future students there.