Check out this week’s Expeditionary Thursdays ET Fieldwork from 10/15.
Grades 9, 10, and 12 went to the American Museum of Natural History. In Grade 12, students used the museum exhibits to study government structures and the use of weapons in two ancient cultures. Grade 9 used the museum’s anthropology collections to further their study of “How do civilizations develop and interact?” Grade 10 is continuing their study of early humans, researching the question “What does it mean to be human?” BCS students were lucky to meet Bill Nye the Science Guy who happened to also be at the museum! He took selfies with excited BCS 9th graders!
Grade 11 had its own unique fieldwork experience. They went to El Museo del Barrio to see the Young Lords exhibit and make connections between resistance seen in Spanish Harlem of the 1960s to the Taino nation in the Caribbean and their encounter with Columbus in the 1490s. Students then interviewed museum attendees about the appropriate ways to teach children about inequities and oppression, and using this information, they composed children’s books that told a “more accurate” version of Columbus’ encounter with the Tainos. As an added element of service to today’s Expeditionary Thursday ET fieldwork, students then went to Carroll Park. When they finished their children’s books, they shared them with parents and children in the park, who agreed to hear our books and decide which ones they would want to read to their children!
So proud of all the ways BCS staff incorporate field work that has a clear purpose that enriches classroom learning. Students are researchers at BCS, not spectators!