A Day at the American Museum of Natural History
Last week St. B’s fourth graders spent a day at the American Museum of Natural History. Led by their science teacher, Mr. Parsons, they walked from school to the museum. While they were in Central Park they stopped by Belvedere Castle to look at the weather station. It was quite a windy day, so the spinning anemometer was hard to miss.
The first stop at the museum was the special exhibition Mummies. This exhibition focused on mummification processes practiced by ancient Egyptians and Peruvians. The Chinchorro population of ancient Peru (now Peru and Chile) practiced mummification thousands of years before Egyptians did. Mummies explored the similarities and differences between Peruvian and Egyptian approaches to mummification. There were objects from Peru and Egypt as well as films and interactive displays that showed x-rays of mummified animals and people. The boys were intrigued by the reconstructed heads of people who had been mummified thousands of years ago.
After learning about mummies, the boys divided into groups to compete in a scavenger hunt. Mr. Parsons had prepared a list of items throughout the museum that the boys were tasked to find. After they found each item, they had to answer several questions about it. The boys explored the Hall of North American Forests, the Hall of Meteorites, and the Hall of Ornithischian Dinosaurs. They identified fossil types, counted footprints of a dinosaur, and sketched a drawing of a Diplodocus skull. The boys worked well together as teams and had fun navigating the museum.
The day at the museum ended with a special tour of Mr. Parsons’ favorite hall at the museum, the Hall of Meteorites. Mr. Parsons taught the boys that the oldest collection of objects in the museum lives in the Hall of Meteorites, not in the dinosaur hall. They admired the Ahnighito meteorite, which weighs thirty-four tons and is held up by supports that extend down to the bedrock beneath the museum.
Many thanks to Mr. Parsons, Mr. Davis, Mr. Russell, and to the many parent chaperones.
