NC+History+Museum-+Jade+Garrett

NC History Museum Activity I. My favorite part of the Story of NC History exhibit was probably the living quarters of the Native Americans and the enslaved people. It was really neat to see how the buildings evolved over time, from a stick and straw hut to an actual house with wooden walls and roof. I think that’s a good teaching lesson for how materials and work ethic evolved over time as well. I really liked that these two structures were built so that we could go in them. It was pretty close to the actual slave quarters house that we went in at Stagville so I was impressed that they’re depictions were so accurate. I also thought the pirates section was really good. I’ve always been fascinated by pirates. I don’t think that I found anything surprising about the state’s history within the museum. Our North Carolina history class was such a good one that I felt like we covered most every aspect within the class and the museum followed right along with the class.

II. **1.** To prep my students for going to the museum I would make sure they knew key events about our state’s history. I would also make sure they knew the expectations for behavior while at the museum. I think it’s really important for the students to have the right behavior in order to get everything they can out of the exhibit.
 * 2.** I would love to do a scavenger hunt with my students at the museum. I would have them look for specific events that happened on specific dates. Also, I think the interactive boards with the buttons that light up parts of the boards/state and give good examples of what students could look for in a scavenger hunt.
 * 3.** I think the sections I could focus on the most are the slavery and then the period after the civil war. I feel like these were two extremely important and controversial times in history and I think the visual would be helpful for students to understand the events.
 * 4.** While I was visiting the museum I saw a lot of group of students being guided through the exhibit with an actual guide of the museum rather than just their teacher. I think I would definitely do a guided tour because I think the knowledge of the guides within the museum would be very valuable to the students. I would also do a follow up lesson with this trip so I would want the students to be thinking about one part of the exhibit that they would want to write about later.
 * 5.** As stated before, I would have the students write about their favorite part of the exhibit once we were back in the classroom. I might also ask them which section they thought was portrayed the most accurately and why.
 * 6.** I think this exhibit is very “kid friendly.” It’s very interactive and while there are a lot of parts to the exhibit, it’s still very attention keeping and engaging. I don’t think I would have any concerns with taking a group of students to the museum.

III. I would make the scavenger hunt the activity for the students to complete at the exhibit. The students could be put into small groups with flip cams and have to document their findings on the flip cam for the teacher and their peers to see later. The students would have to find the object and give a short explanation of it on video.