Meeting of the Board of Regents | October 2007

SUMMARY

Issue for Discussion

The Committee will hear about the involvement of OCE program areas in developing Champlain/Hudson/Fulton Commemoration instructional materials. 

Reason(s) for Consideration

For Information – this project represents a NYSED collaborative initiative.

             
Background Information

At the request of Regent Dawson staff from the Archives, Museum, Library and Public Broadcasting (OCE), EMSC social studies unit, and several teachers from across the State have created standards based learning materials for the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain commemoration in 2009. The learning materials have been developed for use in elementary, middle and high school classrooms. They are designed to be "infused" into existing District curricula/instructional programs.

This collaborative project has brought together digitized cultural resources from OCE (documents, maps, archeological artifacts, etc.), the educational specialists of EMSC and classroom teachers. Samuel de Champlain instructional materials currently include three lessons including Two Worlds Collide: European Encounters with the Native Americans of the Northeast and a scholarly commentary on the subject by Dr. Sylvie Beaudreau of SUNY Plattsburgh.

Henry Hudson instructional materials currently include five lessons including Hudson: Change Over Time and a scholarly essay by Dr. Charles Gehring of The New Netherland Project.

Robert Fulton instructional materials include three lessons including Fulton: Technological Innovation and Change and a scholarly essay by Dr. Ruth McNally curator of history at the Albany Institute of History and Art.

 The Office of Educational Television and Public Broadcasting provided PBS video clips (from two to five minutes in length) to be included in these materials to help provide interactivity and to help engage students.  At the same time NYS Public Broadcasting is involved in a project with three components:

• a two-hour documentary produced by WNET/Thirteen that chronicles the history of the Dutch in New York;
• a two-hour documentary produced by Mountain Lake Public Broadcasting (Plattsburgh) on Samuel de Champlain; and
• an educational outreach program that will include an extensive web component, as well as education materials like lesson plans and curriculum training for teachers around the State.

The New York State Library provided electronic images of maps, documents and prints to illustrate points the teachers were incorporating in the lesson plans. Using the extensive holdings of the Library, staff were able to verify statements before they were included in the teaching units. Work on the CHF project evolved into creation of an exhibit in the CEC marking the 200th anniversary of Fulton's steamboat. This exhibit is currently being turned into a virtual visit with documents that will be able to be used by teachers around New York State.

An exhibit to introduce visitors to the age of exploration and a view of the world in the late 16th and early 17th centuries is being planned for the NYS Museum. This background will lead up to who is exploring North America and in particular what is to become New York State. Then using historical and archaeological data and objects we will dispel commonly held myths about the Native Americans and the Dutch traders and settlers who lived on this new frontier. Finally, the exhibit will show the continuing legacy of these past shapers of our present. What do we have and what can we see in our world today that is left to us by these people and moments of 400 years ago?

Supporting programming for the exhibition will involve a Teacher's Guide which will target pre-Kindergarten through grade 12, tours of the exhibit, and a conference with invited speakers who are specialists on topics related to the exhibition.  Our Dutch and Mohican teacher's workshop held the summer of 2009 will also make extensive use of the exhibit and provide participating educators with tools they can use throughout the 2009-2010 school year. The exhibit will have high educational value and, therefore, be marketed to school districts and colleges/universities across New York State.

This is a CEC-wide project that draws on the knowledge and collections of the archivists, librarians, educators, curators and scientists of the State Office of Cultural Education and will be located in the NYS Museum from April 2009 to March 2010.

Recommendation

Staff recommends that the Cultural Education Committee review the information and provide direction to staff.

Timetable for Implementation

On-going - final implementation September 2008.