Students go back in time at historical village and ag museum in Palmetto

By CARL MARIO NUDI

carl@observernews.net

Teaching history from a book can be dry and boring for some students, but a field trip to the Palmetto Historical Park and Manatee County Agricultural Museum can make it a lot of fun.

The two institutions at the corner of 10th Avenue and 6th Street W. in Palmetto combine their efforts throughout the school year to provide educational programs for Manatee County elementary school classes.

“History is important,” said Tori Chasey-Edwards, curator of the historical park.

“Where we came from dictates where we go,” Chasey-Edwards said. “Also we can see how hard it was to get where we are now.”

And with the historical park and agricultural museum sharing the same location, combining learning history with agriculture made sense.

“History and agriculture in Manatee County go hand-in-hand,” Chasey-Edwards said.

As settlers came to the area they started farms, which grew and developed into an industry with packinghouses and transportation. Other trades and industries were established as the county population grew.

“We all like to eat and agriculture is an important economic factor in Manatee County,” said Melissa Dagenais, curator at the agricultural museum. “So it’s important to understand where our food comes from.”

Coming up with ways to get a kindergarten or first grade student to grasp those concepts takes imagination and hard work.

“We try to keep it fresh,” said Amanda Polson, supervisor of the park, which includes the 1914 Carnegie Library and several historical buildings.

“The program has been developed and adapted over the years,” Polson said. “We take suggestions from teachers and refine our presentations.”

Activities such as planting a seed and washing clothes provide hands-on experiences for elementary students as they discover how agriculture and history affect their lives today.

“You can’t do anything today that’s not touched by agriculture,” said Diane Ingram, executive director of the agricultural museum.

The staff at the park and museum has developed educational programs that fit the learning level of each grade, covering farming, cattle ranching, American and Florida history, nutrition and economics.

All programs meet Florida’s Sunshine State Standards, Polson said, and the field trip lasts about two-and-a-half hours.

A school will send one grade level to the program at a time, which could be up to three different classrooms.

The program starts with all the classes gathering together on the park lawn to learn what history and agriculture are, and what the students will be doing the rest of the time. At this time all the students do some kind of project with seeds, such as planting a seed to take home and watch it grow.

After planting the seed, the students break up into groups of about 20 students and begin a rotation to different stations.

Station One is held in a grassy area in the park and the students learn about agriculture and cattle ranching of today and in the past.

To teach about Florida cowhunters, who are similar to cowboys, the younger students learn about the tools they used.

The kindergarten and first graders get to use a lasso to rope a “cow,” which is a large plastic sculpture.

Fourth graders get to be cowhunters as they search for 20 little cows that are posted around the park and museum. When the students find them they have to answer a question correctly for a clue on where another “cow” can be found.

The other grades learn about farming and produce.

Fifth graders work with measuring and math problems using produce.

Second grade students play a game called Intelligent Grapefruit, which is like Hot Potato, but to music. When the music stops the student holding the grapefruit has to answer a question about citrus. They can have their classmates help with the answer.

And third graders play BEEFO, similar to BINGO, where they match pictures in the squares on the card with products made from beef.

Station Two is held in the old schoolhouse, which originally opened about 1935 and served as the first public kindergarten in Palmetto, or they go to the library.

The students learn to walk in the shoes of a student in the days of Florida pioneers of the 1800s.

Through games and discussion the younger students contrast and compare the one-room schoolhouse with today’s classrooms.

For instance, they would write on a slate board with chalk, or pick out items in the schoolhouse that are not in their modern classrooms.

Fourth grade students also go to the Carnegie Library to learn about how research for a project was done with only books because there were not any computers.

They are divided up into small groups and assigned a notable person in local history. With a clipboard of questions about the person they have to find the answers in several of the buildings in the park.

“We tell them that as historians they are like investigative reporters,” Chasey-Edwards said.

When they get back to the library they write a newspaper article and create a newspaper with all the different articles.

Fifth graders also go to the library to learn about historical research and developing a timeline. They construct personal time capsules and are taught about artifact preservation.

At Station Three, held in the 1910 Cottage Museum, the students learn about what home life was like before there was electricity, running water, and indoor bathrooms.

Depending on the grade, the students do different chores, such as carrying water or washing clothes on a washboard.

Some of the older students also get to visit the Heritage Station Post Office, built in 1880, to learn about the mail system and how long it took to exchange letters, unlike the instantaneous reaction to text messaging.

Station Four is only for the younger classes. Here they paint with pieces of fruit and vegetables to learn about the top five produce grown in Manatee County, which are tomatoes, watermelon, bell peppers, cucumbers and potatoes.

The produce is cut up into shapes and used as stamps to create art.

After a morning of activities, the students end up all together again and learn to churn butter, or if in upper classes, make ice cream.

“It’s a lot of fun,” said Ingram.

And that may be why the field trips fill up fast at the beginning of the school year when the available dates are announced.

In 2016 the historical park and agricultural museum educational program served 1,225 children, including both pre-school and elementary, Ingram said.

That number reflected 55 individual classes from 13 different schools, she said.

Because there are other programs at the village and museum throughout the year the educational program can be offered only on a limited number of days.

To make it fair, the open dates are posted and reservations are taken on the first day the teachers return to school, which is Aug. 4 for the coming year.

“Field trips provide students with hands-on learning opportunities and memorable experiences outside the traditional classroom,” said Cynthia Saunders, deputy superintendent of instructional services for the Manatee County School District. “We believe they are a valuable way to expand educational horizons for our students.”

Ingram said reservations are handled on a first come, first serve basis until all the slots are filled.

The two institutions also offer special programs for home-schooled children and special education students.

For more information about the Manatee County Agricultural Museum, go to www.manateeclerk.com/historical/AgMuseum.aspx. For more information on the Palmetto Historical Park, visit www.manateeclerk.com/historical/PalmettoPark.aspx.