We are excited to share the MathHappens @ The Bullock field trip collaboration with a cross disciplinary (history and mathematics) teacher team from Killeen ISD. As a history museum and home to La Belle, a French ship that sailed across the Atlantic in the 1600s landing in Matagora Bay off the Texas coast, The Bullock is a perfect place to make math connections to our Texas history. Kaitlin Lloyd, Head of School Programs in the Education Department at the Bullock hosted the group for a private talk about the discovery of La Belle, a tour of the exhibit including the ship and artifacts, tickets to the dramatic film created to engage young people, and a space to review the math activities set up with tables chairs and refreshments.
Workshop on Thursday, May 4:The Schedule:
-10:30 arrival. brief welcome, getting settled in the classroom
-10:45 seeing the La Belle portion of the Texas History exhibits
-11:30 am seeing the Shipwrecked film at 11:30 (25 minutes)
-12pm hands-on Math navigation activities (30-45 minutes)
Generally speaking we reviewed our field trip program , shared some of the successes of past events, and explained how and why we set up the trip to engage every participant, to move about the room and tackle the mathematical problems facing sailors and navigators in the 1600s and other eras with models and hands on activities. A blog entry about a middle school trip is here and one about a high school trip is here. The mathematics we tackle is slightly different. Both groups get to sail a ship around the room, learn about the quadrant, conduct a speed test for their boat, build a fort with Lincolns logs, learn some ways to use maps and compasses and build a parallel ruler.
The tables of materials we “visited” today:
We sent the group home with a wooden quadrant, stereographic projection shell, Gunter Rule, parallel rulers, a shadow puppet theater and this packet of primary source materials. Cover sheet folder with book excerpts.
We also got to share this super cool album of student thank you notes and comments created by Marianne Villanueva and Laura Choi from notes we received from students at Austin High after this field trip and others. Field Trip Album
