Sarah Hunter
TEDU591
11/16/2016
Field Trip Project
The Building Museum in Washington, DC
History and Social Science SOL 3.1 The student will explain how the contributions of
ancient Greece and Rome have influenced the present world in terms of
architecture, government (direct and representative democracy), and sports.
I was inspired to do this activity on one of my favorite field trips as a student in
Arlington County Public Schools.
Pre-trip:
The National Building museum is a great place for students to go to explore the
impact the built environment has had over culture and society overtime. The ride to
the building museum through DC is a lesson in itself of the Grecian influence on
architecture of museums and monuments alone. The building museum has so many
programs for students on field trips; the website is a great resource to pick an
activity while there for grades pre-k through 12.
Prior to this trip, students should have already learned about the difference
between Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian columns in class to be able to recognize them
around the city and around the National Building Museum itself.
During trip:
This field trip will start before the students get to the physical building. Washington,
D.C. is such a special place to teach near because there are so many resources to
choose from when planning a good field trip. The students will be given a chart with
Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian column sections to record how many of each type of
column they see on the drive into the city. This is a great thing to do because it gives
the kids something to do on the bus ride in. Grecian influence is blatant in the
architecture of the city, especially on the drive to the National Building Museum
because you go all the way down the mall. If possible, it would be good to plan out a
route to the museum so the students will be able to see examples of each type of
column.
Once the students get to the building museum, they will first observe the
architecture of the building itself. On many Grecian buildings, the carved boarder of
buildings told stories, so this would be a good time to have someone talk to the
children about what the border around the building museum represents.
Discovery Cart: Arches and Trusses is the activity that the students will be doing
inside the museum. Arches and trusses were invented first by the romans, so it still
ties into the focused SOL. The activity lasts for 30-45 minutes and looks into how
building forces, materials, and structures affect strength and longevity. Students will
be able to test different building materials and work together to build an arch. They
get to use things like Popsicle sticks, blocks, straws, etc. to test how to build a
structure that will withstand a certain amount of pressure. The guide from the
museum gives a brief history on roman architecture and how influential these
innovations have been to the way we still build today.
Post-trip:
The best way for students to reflect on a field trip is to keep a journal throughout the
experience and look back to reflect and write about their day. I don’t think a formal
assessment is necessary for this field trip because architecture is a form of creative
expression, and since they students will be using their hands and observing the way
different structures look, I assume their brains will be extremely active and needing
time to reflect on what they’ve seen and done.
This field trip can also transition well into a math review on triangles, other angles,
etc. It would be a good opportunity to tie in both subjects depending on the SOL you
are focused on at the time.
This is also a good opportunity to incorporate art into any kind of evaluation. The
students can paint or draw the different kinds of columns, or construct a building
with arches and trusses in them. This could also be a project that students work on
at home to spend more time on it.