INVITATION

How can we help students understand the role of math and the physical sciences in the real world? How can we help them see the connections between science, technology, and human history? How can we help them realize how the past influences the present and the future? How can we create contexts for learning in which knowledge is acquired for the purpose of transmitting it to others?

TASKS

Acting as museum curators, students research and create exhibits relating to navigation and then work together to combine the exhibits into a museum.

TOOLS

Computers; the Internet (optional); Sherlock (optional); iMovie (optional).

AppleWorks; Destination: Time Trip, USA; Mapmaker's Toolkit; World Book Encyclopedia.

The Cruncher (optional); Mighty Math Calculating Crew (optional); a Web page editor, such as Adobe PageMill or Netscape Composer (optional).

Art supplies; journals.

INTERACTIONS

Students work in pairs as museum curators to research and create their exhibits. When the exhibits are complete, the class as a whole breaks into three teams, a Layout team, a Publicity team, and a Visitor team, that divide responsibility for planning the opening of the museum to the public. While the museum is "open," it is managed by members of the Visitor team. Throughout the project, the teacher acts as Museum Director, supervising curators' progress in creating their exhibits, and then overseeing the planning and running of the museum.

<STANDARDS

To identify the curriculum standards for your state that correlate to this student project, select the state in the popup menu below and then click the Go button.

SITUATIONS

To research their exhibits, students work in a location with computers and (optionally) Internet access. They then work in the classroom to create their exhibits and set up the museum. After the exhibits are created, members of the Publicity team might work outside the classroom to distribute and post advertising materials.

Researching and creating exhibits will take at least five days of work, and it is best if these days are spread over a period of several weeks. Activities connected to organizing the museum (Phase 3) can be completed in a day or so, with some extra time required for distributing advertising materials. The museum can be open for whatever time period is practical, such as a whole day or every day at lunch for a week.

ASSESSMENT

The teacher can assess each exhibit plan using a checklist that helps determine the reasonableness of the work schedule, and which evaluates the plan based on general goals he or she has set for the exhibits. The teacher also uses each exhibit plan to set specific goals for each exhibit, which will be used for later assessment of the exhibit.

During the course of exhibit creation, the teacher meets with each pair of curators to review the pair's progress based on the initial exhibit plan, and together they modify the plan as needed.

After the exhibits have been created, the teacher uses a rubric to evaluate how well each pair has achieved the specific goals created in the initial assessment of the exhibit plan. The rubric will also help the teacher evaluate students' grasp of the concepts of navigation and the principles of physical science and math related to the exhibit. Each curator pair may also prepare a written self-assessment that evaluates their work processes as well as their final product.

Throughout history, people have worked on improving their ability to find their way from place to place without getting lost. They have developed tools for navigation, maps to represent the earth's surface, and vehicles and crafts in which to travel. With every improvement in navigation, mapping, and travel technology, they were able to travel greater distances and explore more of the world away from their homes.

In this project, students imagine that they're curators at a museum devoted to showcasing this area of human history, the Museum of Navigation. Each pair of curators proposes and creates an exhibit about a navigation tool (such as the astrolabe, sextant, or radar), a kind of map (such as the Mercator map), a voyaging craft (such as Viking ships or the space shuttle), or a famous navigator, mapmaker, or explorer (such as Henry the Navigator). Curators then work together to combine their exhibits into an actual museum visited by people from outside the classroom.

Phase 1: Planning exhibits

Each pair of curators selects a subject for their exhibit. They may want to begin by exploring general articles in World Book Encyclopedia such as "Navigation," "Ship," "Exploration," "Geography," and "Map" to look for more specific subjects of interest. Once they have chosen a subject, pairs can research it in more depth using World Book Encyclopedia and library resources. They can also search the Internet with Sherlock for information relating to their subject. Students can use the "Searching World Book Encyclopedia" and "Searching With Sherlock 2" Step-by-Step Cards to help with their research.

In their research, pairs should focus on how their subject is related to navigation, and they should think about what museum visitors will want to know about the subject. If the exhibit subject is a navigation tool, for example, the pair might want to investigate questions such as these: Who invented the tool or craft, and when? How does it work? How did it change travel, exploration, and navigation when it was first introduced?

Curators prepare exhibit plans in AppleWorks to be submitted to you, the Museum Director. In the exhibit plans, students outline the information that they've uncovered, describe how they plan to display the information, and prepare a work schedule that lists each part of the exhibit, the important steps to take in creating each part, and the date when each part should be completed.

Phase 2: Creating the exhibits

Pairs go to work creating exhibits that will interest visitors and inform them about the navigation-related topic. The parts and materials included in each exhibit will depend on the exhibit's subject, but each should include written information about the subject (prepared with AppleWorks) and illustrative images. Students can create images using the drawing tools in AppleWorks, copy them from World Book Encyclopedia, or download them from the Internet. Images should include labels (if appropriate) and captions.

Curators may want to show some connection to mathematics in their exhibits. In the case of a navigation tool, for example, a curator pair can show how math is needed to operate the tool, or use math to describe how the tool works.

Curators may also want to include maps in their exhibits. They can search Mapmaker's Toolkit for base maps they can use to show such information as the voyage of an explorer, the birthplace of an inventor of a navigation tool, or the homeland of a culture or civilization that helped advance the science of navigation.

Pairs preparing exhibits on navigation tools or crafts may want to construct physical models of their subjects to include in their exhibits.

As the creation of the exhibits proceeds, curators should schedule reviews with the Museum Director and record their experiences in their journals.

Phase 3: Organizing the museum

When the exhibits are completed, curators form three teams that plan for the opening of the museum. The Layout team discusses how to organize the exhibits in the museum. How can the exhibits be grouped? How can they be arranged in the room? The discussion should focus on ways to help museum visitors experience the exhibits. Members of this team submit floor plans created in an AppleWorks drawing document. They can use the "Using the Drawing Tools in AppleWorks" Step-by-Step Card for help with this activity.

The Publicity team focuses on getting the word out about the museum. They can use AppleWorks to create posters, signs, maps, and brochures to help publicize and support the museum. The old-fashioned book templates and postcard templates in Destination: Time Trip, USA can be used to create journals or postcards to go with the exhibits. Team members can make museum postcards as a "take away" for visitors.

The Visitor team is responsible for planning how to handle museum visitors. When and for how long will the museum be open? What is the maximum number of people that the museum can handle at one time? Will there be docents to help explain the exhibits and guides to give tours? Will there be a receptionist? How will the docents and guides be trained so that they know the information that needs to be presented? Team members can prepare a written description of their plans, using AppleWorks.

Phase 4: Opening the museum

To prepare for the actual opening of the museum, the Layout team, with help from the exhibit curators, sets up the exhibits according to their floor plan, and the Publicity team puts in place any needed signs. Members of the Visitor team then become responsible for running the museum when it is open. They take on the roles (docent, receptionist, and so on) they decided on earlier, while the other curators make themselves available to answer visitors' questions about their exhibits. If you have digital cameras and iMovie software, members of the Publicity team (or other interested students) can film the student curators, the exhibits, and the visitors, and create a desktop movie to be shown at school events or to future classes.

Vocabulary: Curator, Docent, Exhibit.

Phase 1: Internet searches must be well thought out. Search terms such as "explorer" or "navigation tools" will bring up many items related to technology rather than Earth explorers. Internet search terms such as "traditional ocean navigation tools" are more likely to give useful results.

Phase 4: For help using iMovie, go to the Desktop Movies in Education Web site.

PREPARATION

You might want to begin this activity after a unit on the voyages of exploration, after a geography unit on oceans, or after a unit on related mathematics topics, such as fractions, multiplication, or geometry. Mighty Math Calculating Crew includes activities on these topics at a variety of levels.

If the curators are making physical models for their exhibits, help them select materials for their construction.

Consider using a spreadsheet in AppleWorks or The Cruncher to create an overall schedule and track the progress of the development of the exhibits.

Make copies of any of the Step-by-Step Cards that may be helpful to students when they begin making their exhibits.

As Museum Director, you can expand the breadth of possible subjects for exhibits. For example, you can allow students to pursue such topics as the navigational abilities of migrating animals, such as monarch butterflies.

Arrange a visit to your class by a curator from a local museum.

Two groups can work on the same topic, and their information and exhibits can be combined. Pairs can also cooperate in designing exhibits that are related.

In your review of the exhibit plans, suggest an appropriate mix of computer and non-computer activities, based on your classroom equipment and practices. You might also suggest math-related activities, such as a diagram of a compass rose or a radar screen, a chart or drawing showing the powers of magnification of a simple telescope, or an explanation of latitude or longitude.

Students can create presentations (in addition to exhibits) using AppleWorks, including pictures pasted from World Book Encyclopedia and written or recorded text and their own drawings.

The floor plan created by the Layout team in Phase 3 can be included in a visitor guide that the Publicity team prepares and hands out to visitors.

As part of Phase 3, students in the Publicity team can create a newsletter using AppleWorks that publicizes the museum and describes the various exhibits that will be on display.

When the museum is complete, allow time for scheduled visits by family members and by other classes; or, the museum can be open every day at lunch for a week, supported by the class's publicity efforts.

A group of volunteer curators can use the AppleWorks drawing tools to make a timeline showing where in history each exhibit in the museum can be placed. A good resource for this project can be found in World Book Encyclopedia by searching on "navigation timeline."

Each pair of curators can create a Web page version of their exhibit, and then all the Web pages can be collected together as a virtual museum Web site.

If a number of inexpensive compasses are available, students can take them home to play a navigation game with their families. One person can use the compass to write directions to a hidden "treasure," such as "From the front door, go 10 steps east; then go 5 steps south; then go 5 more steps east; look up to see the treasure." You can also play this game in the classroom or on the playground.

BOOKS

Finding Your Way: Navigation Essays from the Exploratorium by K.C. Cole

The Atlantic Neptune Online
http://mercator.cogs.nscc.ns.ca/neptune.html

The Columbus Navigation Homepage
http://www1.minn.net/%7Ekeithp/index.htm

Nautical Charts
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/digital/nautic.html

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
http://www.nasm.si.edu