New Series: Hidden Gems

I had the opportunity to visit a wonderful museum last week and it gave me the idea for a new section on this post.  About once a month, this website will feature a blog post that focuses on introducing a little-known museum.  We will include pictures, tips for visiting, do-no-miss exhibits and a brief review.  We are always interested in new ideas, so if you are interested in writing or have an idea, simply email and let us know!

Our first feature:

The Children's Museum of Virginia
Location: Portsmouth, Virginia
Hours: Monday - Saturday, 9am - 5pm; Sunday 11am - 5pm
Price: From $5-12, depending on age
Website: http://childrensmuseumvirginia.com/

Located about 1.5 hours south of Richmond, Virginia, The Children's Museum is truly a museum the focuses on children, both in programming as well as in the physical building.  I would personally argue that this is the true genius of this museum.

As soon as you walk in you are greeted with warm, bright colors.  The museum is not large but of a good size where children can easily access the whole museum in one trip before naptime, or can spend their time carefully exploring one or two exhibits.  The exhibits themselves focus on the local area in Portsmouth and Norfolk as well as every day activities and environments that children encounter.  While you and your family check out the map kiosk and decide what to do first, your child can practice moving shipping containers on and off of freight boats.

Immediately to the right on the first floor is the train exhibit.  Donated by

National History Day and Hope

Greetings, fellow wayfarers!

Last week I had the pleasure of being one of the judges for the National History Day competition.  www.nhd.org.  I was one of the judges in the Senior Group Performance category: this means that these were performance groups of 2-5 students between 9th and 12th grade.  I was able to meet other professionals who cared enough about education and history to donate their time and be part of this great event.

The most humbling part of the day were the kids themselves.  This event happened 2 days after the tragic shooting in Orlando.  At this competition, I met kids who were passionate about social justice, committed to peaceful solutions and focused on comprehensive historical research.  These are some of the people who will be the future leaders of this country and of the world.

From where I sit, the future looks pretty bright.

#fightignorancewitheducation 

I've been Published!!!

Greetings, Fellow Wayfarers!

It is with great pride and gratitude that I announce that I have actually been published!

Ms. Katie McComas, who runs the fantastic blog "Cracking the Collections" asked me to write a guest post for the month of April.  I chose to focus on ways to tailor your tour to visiting school groups in order to make the most of the time that both of you spend together.

I want to take this time to thank Katie for being so generous with her blog - I had a wonderful time writing and I hope that I can do it again.

In the meantime, feedback is always appreciated!

Happy travels!

www.crackingthecollections.wordpress.com

Back After a Too-Long Absence

Happy Spring, Fellow Wayfarers!

I have to apologize for such a long absence; I can assure you that there are good reasons behind it.  Last September I began my position as the Youth Programs Coordinator for the Children's Science Center in Herndon, Virginia.  It has proven to be a very rewarding, albeit time consuming job!

But back to business.  There are some great things on the horizon that I wanted to let you all know about:

- I will be doing a post as a guest blog writer for "Cracking the Collections", a blog for emerging museum professionals, at https://crackingthecollections.wordpress.com/ .  It is scheduled to go up on April 1 and I'll post again when it does.

- There is a fabulous exhibit on the Vikings at Discovery Times Square.  Sponsored in part by Viking Cruises, this is the first time for many of these artifacts to journey to North America.  I'm going to be going up to review it this summer and I'll be sure to post pictures.  Let me know if you have any questions that you want me to research at the exhibit.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/viking-cruises-partners-discovery-times-130000673.html

- There are some new innovations going on down at Colonial Williamsburg since new director Mitchell Reiss came on board as of June 2014.  This is a very exciting time to be part of the Education / Entertainment Industry and while the direction is being lauded, some of the changes are causing some consternation.  I will be investigating some of the reactions to these changes and I'll report back to you.
http://makinghistorynow.com/2014/06/the-colonial-williamsburg-foundation-appoints-mitchell-b-reiss-president-and-ceo/

- I've joined the cast of the Virginia Renaissance Faire as part of their Militia for the 2016 season. The Militia includes a weapons training area and fully-functioning kitchen and I'm very excited to get to work.
www.varf.org
I'll keep you posted.  Keep your questions coming.

Happy Adventuring!

Archaeology of Awesomeness!!!

There is a brand-new exhibit at National Geographic that I had to share with everyone!

Coming to us from Canada, Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology is now open at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, DC.

This exhibit has a dual purpose: to take the visitor in-depth into the trilogy of Indiana Jones movies, while at the same time educating the public about the real-time work that archaeologists do and the science behind them.  I am happy to say that this exhibit succeeded wonderfully at both!

Now on through January 3, 2016.  Come on down and explore the roots of the Living Museum!


http://www.indianajonestheexhibition.com

Back to the Field

Happy Spring, fellow wayfarers!

I apologize for the long delay!  April is the beginning of testing season for the public school system, and while I don't have to take the tests, administering them in accordance with each child's IEP and 504 really takes it out of you!

I attended a fascinating lecture at the National Museum of Natural History the other day and I want to share it with you all.  The lecture was offered as part of the Castle Lecture series and was entitled "Ethics in the Anthropocene".  [www.si.edu/consortia/castlelectureseries]

Here is a basic definition of terms to get you started;

Anthropocene: The age of humans, wherein humanity is seen as a geological force. It is being proposed that this term be used to describe the age that we are living in now, at the end of the Holocene.  Characterized by collective human domination of nature fed by a large population and correspondingly large levels of consumption, as well as power of and reliance on technology which make action at spatial and temporal distance possible. [as proposed by Dale Jamieson, Reason in a Dark Time]

Ethics: a code or series of codes of behavior and/or conduct by which one lives one's life.

Ethics of the Anthropocene: now that it has been proven that humans are/have altered the planet, what are the new responsibilities we have as the dominant species on the planet to preserve and protect it?

Dale Jamieson proposed a new code of ethics for this epoch which he named the "Green Ethics" consisting of:
- Preservation, couched in Humility
- Rehabilitation, couched in Temperance
- Creation, couched in Mindfulness, Cooperativeness, and Respect for Nature.
He proposed these ethics in light of his belief that Morality needs to be revised in order to catch up with the times, such as in the areas of civil rights, animal rights, and the rise of capitalism.

This latest lecture was given by Dale Jamieson and had a panel response consisting of Dr. Rick Potts, Connie Bertka, Elliott Dorff, Fred Edwords, David Haberman, Betty Holley, and Nancy Howell.

In the Classroom:  This information dovetails with current public school lessons in a number of ways.  I've listed a few below and would be very interested to hear your thoughts and reactions. (I don't mention private schools simply because I have no experience teaching at them.  I'm sure that similar lesson plans could be made to accommodate these needs.)

School-wide 
- the importance of recycling programs, and the recent rise in popularity of school gardens and composting
- the importance of being global citizens, and what that means
- taking responsibility for your actions
- careful consideration of what job you will have one day, and how that job will affect the stability of our world

Science
- studying the changing chemistry of our world to see how it has been affected
- studying the changing chemistry of our world to see how we can repair the damage
- examining the adaptations of plants and animals to this new environment

Mathematics
- calculating the rate at which the planet's atmosphere is changing
- calculating the rate at which the population is growing and the amount of resources we consume
- calculating the rate at which we would need to replace those resources and the probability of doing so

Biology
- examining the changing morphology in human beings over the ages
- can we predict what changes will occur next?
- what animal species have we already lost?

History
- has this phenomenon happened at any other time in history?
- is there a historical precedent?
- what can we learn from the past to impact the future?

Language Arts
- how do we talk to each other about what has happened?
- do we need to create new terminology?
- we need to learn how to calmly and rationally approach this issue and look for solutions.

The question I would like to leave you with is this:  In light of our new information on the effect humanity is having on the planet, do our ethics and moral codes need revision?  Or are there already moral codes in place that account for these changes?

The lines are open - let discussion abound!

Dovetailing Discoveries!

Greetings, Fellow Wayfarers!

There have been some fantastic developments in Archaeology this week!

Thousands of Bodies from Bedlam

While digging for a new rail line, archaeologists in England uncovered a large gravesite with around 3,000 bodies, all interred during the 16th and 17th centuries AD, putting them directly in the swath of the bubonic plague.  The worst of its kind to ever be seen, the bubonic plague (more commonly referred to as The Black Death, owing to the color of the pustules it left on human bodies in its wake) ultimately killed 1/3 of the population of Europe at that time.

This latest discovery coincidentally comes on the heels of a recent joint study done by Cornell University and Columbia University that found that it may not have been the rats that spread the bubonic plague, as was common belief, but in fact the fleas on rats who are responsible.  Fleas on Rats are to Blame.  These same fleas have also been found to carry typhus and Barontella germs, as well as a host of other fun little friends.  These fleas can be linked back to the Oriental fleas which were responsible for bringing the bubonic plague to Europe from Asia, using the Silk Road trading routes as a pipeline.

Bedlam Cemetary opened in 1569 to take in the overflow from the city's other cemetaries.  So far this dig has been Christmas for archaeologists: included among the bones are bison and mammoth bones, Roman horseshoes, medieval ice skates as well as the remains of a Tudor manor house.  This cemetary is also the origin of the word 'bedlam' referring to insanity or chaos.

About 60 archaeologists, working 16-hour days in shifts, spent a month excavating the bones to a laboratory.  After analysis the bones will be reburied on Canvey Island in the Thames Estuary.  The Crosslink railway station to be built on the site is scheduled to open in 2018.

As an archaeologist, you tend to form a connection with the land and the artifacts that you are spending so much time in such close proximity with.  When excavating in Vindolanda on Hadrian's Wall in 2013, one of my finds included a finely wrought gold bracelet.  I started immediately wondering about the woman who had worn it.  Was it a gift from her husband?  An engagement present that was returned?  The part of the fort we were excavating included the barracks of the Roman soldiers stationed there.   Why would someone leave something so valuable behind?

Bones have an even more powerful pull on you.  As these archaeologists start cleaning and running tests, they won't just be tracing a historical plague bacteria.  They will be witness to the lives that these people lived.  Our bones serve as a catalog of everything that has ever happened to us - what we ate, where we traveled, what we did for work, etc.  Examining bones like these almost feels like the corpse is trusting you to write an accurate account of what their life was like.  All this and as scientists, archaeologists still need to be able to add verifiable data from our discoveries.  Whew!

The Smithsonian Institution has produced two excellent exhibitions in the last few years on modern archaeology and what we can learn from bone analysis.  I can tell you from personal experience that both exhibits are tremendous.  They cover the depth and scope of the materials while simultaneously presenting it at a relatable level to the general public.  I would encourage everyone to read and/or make sure you see both.  The Hall of Human Origins is a permanent exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History.

Hall of Human Origins Traveling Exhibition

Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th Century Chesapeake
Written in Bone