Indiana Academic Standard correlation to a museum school visit 3rd Grade Language Arts 3.2.2 Ask questions and support answers by connecting prior knowledge with literal information from the text.           Explain to students that they will learn many new things at The Children's Museum by reading, listening, and observing. Some things will remind them of things they already knew. For instance, maybe the students knew that Ancient Egyptians made mummies, but they may not have known that most mummies are NOT found in pyramids. Discuss how students can use their prior knowledge to understand new things at The Children's Museum. Together, try to compare the new things they see and learn with what they already know. Encourage students to ask questions using their prior knowledge. 3.2.6 Locate appropriate and significant information from the text, including problems and solutions.           Visit the watershed project in ScienceWorks and discuss how a watershed works. Then experiment to see how placing dams in some areas creates floods or lakes in others. Discuss the problems that might be by interrupting or diverting the flow along the route. What solutions can students propose to solve these problems?           Visit the Reuben Wells engine in All Aboard! On Lower Level and learn how and why it was invented. Can students identify what problem the people of Madison had (the railroad grade was too steep) and how they solved it (bigger engine, placing locomotive at the back of the train to PUSH, not pull the train up the hill). 3.4.4 Use various reference materials (such as a dictionary, thesaurus, atlas, encyclopedia, and online resources).           There are many reference materials in the museum. There are maps near many displays. The infoZone on LV2 has dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, and books related to museum exhibits, as well as computers with Internet access if students wish to look up new information. They can also ask the librarians. 3.7.1 Retell, paraphrase, and explain what a speaker has said.           After listening to a museum presentation, repeat new words to help the students learn them. Discuss with students what they have just learned. Encourage students to help explain things to each other. 3.7.2 Answer questions completely and appropriately.           Many of the museum staff will ask questions in order to help you learn about their exhibits. Use complete sentences and give as much information as you can when you answer the questions. Throughout the visit, teacher and chaperones should ask their own questions and encourage complete answers. Social Studies 3.1.3 Describe the role of specific communities in the development of the region.           Many years ago, the Ohio River was an important transportation route. Towns along the Ohio River like Madison received goods from other parts of the country. From there, they were sent north to other places in Indiana like Indianapolis. How did these goods move north? Visit All Aboard! to see what Madison used to look like in the 1870s and 1880s and see the Rueben-Wells train engine which helped distribute goods from the river. 3.1.7 Use a variety of community resources, such as libraries, museums, and county historians, to gather information about the local community.           Students can see many historic objects from Indiana in The Children's Museum. The carousel, built in 1912, is from Broad Ripple Park in Indianapolis. The mastodon on Level 4 is 12000 years old and was found near Greenfield, Indiana in 1976. See local astronaut David Wolf's space uniform on the Lower Level. What other local objects can students find (racecar, Rueben-Wells)? What do they tell about the local community, either the past or the present? Ask students to tell why it is important for the museum to have them. Share with them that The Children's Museum has been a part of the Indianapolis community since 1926. 3.5.5 Use community resources, such as museums, libraries, historic buildings, and other landmarks, to gather cultural information about the community.           Locate the various cultural objects from Indianapolis and the state. For instance, there is an Indy racecar on Level 3. What does the racecar tell visitors about the city? How does it represent the city? What do other objects tell us about community?           Listen to the stories of local African-Americans in Story Avenue. What do their stories teach about the African-American community of Indianapolis? Science 3.1.1 Recognize and explain that when a scientific investigation is repeated, a similar result is expected.           Observe the Ball Machine at the entrance to Science Works. The same thing happens to the balls as they drop and move around the machine every time. Can students explain why they think that is? 3.1.4 Discuss the results of investigations and consider the explanations of others.           At the back of ScienceWorks, near the Biotechnology Learning Lab, find the timeline of scientific development of food resources. The timeline shows various advancements that help produce more quantities of healthier food. How were these changes made? What would scientists have to do in order to make these discoveries? Encourage students to ask someone who works in ScienceWorks if they have questions. Or students might conduct their own scientific investigations at the watershed model-how does diverting water affect the surrounding areas? What reasons might engineers redirect the streams and rivers in the White River watershed? 3.1.5 Demonstrate the ability to work cooperatively while respecting the ideas of others and communicating one's own conclusions about findings.           In scientific projects, two heads are always better than one. As a class or in a small group, practice redirecting the Fall Creek watershed. Remind students to discuss all of the advantages and disadvantages of every solution that is proposed. Also discuss a fair way, like voting, of determining the best solution.           Take students to the dinosaur discovery area in the What If? Gallery. Discuss how it takes many people to uncover such a large object, each person working in their own small area. 3.2.4 Appropriately use simple tools, such as clamps, rulers, scissors, hand lenses, and other technology, such as calculators and computers, to help solve problems.           Find tools like rulers or magnifying glasses to help you observe specimens in ScienceWorks. Or work on the many computers in the museum to learn more about the exhibits. 3.2.5 Construct something used for performing a task out of paper, cardboard, wood, plastic, metal, or existing objects.           Build a boat at Dock Shop in ScienceWorks. Make sure it floats! Why do you think it is important to use lightweight materials like Styrofoam and paper? 3.2.7 Ask "How do you know?" in appropriate situations and attempt reasonable answers when others ask the same question.           Explain that we learn by observing, listening, reading, and asking questions. Visit the water-clock presentation at 12:45 in the Welcome Center and practice all of these skills. 3.3.8 Investigate and describe how moving air and water can be used to run machines, like windmills and waterwheels.           Observe the waterwheel at Dock Shop in ScienceWorks. How does it work? What else gets powered by water? Or, look at the Fall Creek Watershed model and observe how particles get pushed downstream by the water current. What sort of things wash away? 3.3.9 Demonstrate that things that make sound do so by vibrating, such as vocal cords and musical instruments.           In Passport to the World, there are drums from all over the world. Many drums from Africa have rattles that add extra sound to the normal drumbeat. Observe the rattles-they vibrate when the drum is struck. This vibration is what causes the sound. 3.4.1 Demonstrate that a great variety of living things can be sorted into groups in many ways using various features, such as how they look, where they live, and how they act, to decide which things belong to which group.           Find the collection of shells in the coral reef area of the What If? gallery. They are divided up and classified according to type. What features were used to divide the shells into different groups? Observe differences in size. Shapes vary too-some are spiral, some have two halves, some have special spikes. Also notice how they have different colors or patterns. 3.4.5 Give examples of some kinds of organisms that have completely disappeared and explain how these organisms were similar to some organisms living today.           There are many fossils at The Children's Museum. Many represent creatures that are no longer alive today. Find the mastodon. Although there are no longer mastodons today, there are similar large animals. What animal alive today does it resemble? Or, in ScienceWorks, find the fossils from long-ago oceans that covered Indiana. The Borden Sea Floor, from Indiana, is one of the largest pieces of sea floor on display anywhere. How are these fossils similar to things found in oceans today? Visit the Paleo Prep Lab on Level 3 and observe a scientist at work cleaning dinosaur fossils. Encourage students to ask questions about what kind of fossil the technician is cleaning and how scientists study bones to learn about the past. 3.6.1 Investigate how and describe that when parts are put together, they can do things that they could not do by themselves.           In ScienceWorks there are many types of building materials. Use them to construct arches, walls, or towers. How do the parts fit together? What do they do when they are put together that they cannot do when they are broken apart? What other building processes can you think of that make strong structures (mortar, interlocking pieces)? While you are in the Construction Zone, find the display of simple machines and discuss how they are used. Look for example of simple machines in the exhibit and discuss how they work. 3.6.2 Investigate how and describe that something may not work if some of its parts are missing.           Attempt to build an arch in ScienceWorks. You may notice that the whole thing will fall down if the top center-piece is missing. This piece is called a keystone. Observe the Ball Machine. What would happen if one part was not working properly or was missing? Or learn how the water clock works and discuss how it would fail if some parts were missing. What other things don't work if one thing is missing? 3.6.3 Explain how a model of something is different from the real thing but can be used to learn something about the real thing.           Scientists use models all the time to learn how things work. For instance, observe the model of the Fall Creek Watershed area. How is it useful? What can we learn by looking at the model that we wouldn't know without it?           Observe the Mini Masterpieces on Level 2 and make observations about the rooms. In what ways are they like "real" rooms, in what ways are they different? What do the students learn by observing these rooms? 3.6.4 Observe that and describe how some changes are very slow and some are very fast and that some of these changes may be hard to see and/or record.           In ScienceWorks students will find a piece of bedrock from the Borden Sea Floor that covered Indiana millions of years ago. It may be surprising to realize that Indiana used to be below sea level. It also used to be very warm and tropical all year round. Over the course of millions of years, Indiana gradually became the environment you see today. Scientists can learn about these changes by observing fossils and using what they know about weather patterns in the present to guess how they were in the past.

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