Lucy’s Class Notes

Our class successfully curated a museum about whaling and maritime history. Every Hayground student and faculty member visited the museum and went on a tour led by the students in my group. Each student had the opportunity to learn self-reliance when making decisions for the museum and speaking about their topic to the visitors on their own. We also spent time thinking about and from multiple perspectives while reading excerpts from Good Neighbors: A Shinnecock History From a Shinnecock Perspective by

Shane Weeks. We learned about the Shinnecock people’s perspective on whaling and formed a better understanding of when whaling started and the significance it held for Indigenous people. This experience inspired us to take responsibility for investigating the entire narrative/history behind topics that we wish to pursue.

The students reflected on their experience at the American Museum of Natural History in the city and chose a topic from the museum that they wanted to explore further. Some topics were dinosaur fossils, human evolution, gems and minerals, insects, and space. Since some students picked the same topic, they collaborated during their research and discussed ways to research their topic and present their findings. One form of research we used was playing games that pertained to the topics being researched. This fun, interactive research method allowed us to read and write non-fiction, informational texts. Students learned to consider the tone and language used when explaining factual information.

After researching, students made things such as skull sculptures and gem replicas. Not only did they use their research to determine the way they would display their work, but they also thought about aesthetics. We discussed how to make our work accessible and welcoming to a diverse group of museum visitors. This experience has also been a fun way to work with numbers, mainly when calculating how far back our natural history goes! Two students decided to initiate a sustained conversation with the people at the museum by writing a letter asking questions about a particular part of the museum.

We look forward to starting our mystery study when we return in January and seeing where our upcoming field trips will take us. — December 14th, 2023