JCSD 3rd Graders Attend Museum School

The JCSD third grade students recently attended a 4-day field trip to the Grout Museum. Each day students experience four different learning sessions that cover Iowa from millions of years ago through WWII. 

The morning of the first day consisted of learning about, handling, and discovering different types of fossils and studying Native Americans in the Iowa region. In the afternoon, students were shown exhibits of pioneer times in the Waterloo area. They even learned that Waterloo was once named Prairie Rapids. They were also given a tour through the solar system in the museum’s planetarium.

The second day consisted of touring the Rensselaer Russell house to learn about the Victorian Era, performing science experiments, and learning about the milling industry by tasting Johnny cakes and using a stone mill grinder.

On the third day, students were taught about the assembly line process by making their own paper tractors on an assembly line. The students also learned about immigration in Waterloo. The students participated in a simulation where they had to decide what they will “immigrate” to America with. Later in the day, the students learned about striking and unfair treatment of workers. They finished the day by experiencing a one room schoolhouse simulation. Students were instructed about the “three r’s” (reading, writing, and arithmetic) with a demonstration of typical teaching practices of a one room schoolhouse.

The last day of museum school allowed the students to tour the basement exhibits of the museum and see how Iowa was involved in the Civil War, the Spanish War, and WWI. They then head upstairs to learn about Iowa’s involvement in WWII, along with the sacrifice the Sullivan brothers made for our country on the USS Juneau. The students end their week by making a timeline of the activities, drawing a picture for their time capsule (to be opened when they graduate high school), and going through a graduation ceremony.

According to the Grout Museum District, “The program is the only one of its kind in the state.”