Registration open for Fall Home School Day at Old Independence Regional Museum
Registration open for Fall Home School Day at Old Independence Regional Museum
Old Independence Regional Museum will host its fall Home School Day on Monday, September 26, 2016 from 9 a.m. to Noon, with sign-in beginning at 8:45 a.m. Registration and a program fee of $5 are due by September 16, 2016. Registration is limited to 50 students.
Student will take on four hands-on engineering challenges: Building a boat that will not easily sink, designing a building that can withstand earthquakes, creating a homestead, and constructing a bridge. Like pioneers in the early days, students will have limited, varying supplies. “Homeschool day is fun, educational experience for students,” said Humanities Educator Amelia Bowman, “the variety of hands-on activities help students retain information much better.”
The students will be divided into four groups based on age and will rotate through each of the challenges. At the boat making station, students will float their boat down a model lock and dam. After each successful float, weight will be added to the boat to see which one is most durable. While trying to build an earthquake structure, students will be divided into groups and given different building materials. The structure will then be placed on a shake table to determine if it could withstand an earthquake. At the homestead making station, students will be given a variety of items and have to make a homestead with their items. Students may have to trade with each other to make a successful homestead, just as settlers would have done. Finally, at the bridge building station, students will have the option to construct an arch, truss, or beam bridge.
Old Independence serves a 12-county area: Baxter, Cleburne, Fulton, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Marion, Poinsett, Sharp, Stone, White, and Woodruff. Parts of these present-day counties comprised the original Independence County in 1820s Arkansas territory.
This humanities program is made possible by local support from Independence County and the City of Batesville, as well as by Challenge Grant Endowment funding from the National Endowment of the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
