Indiana Academic Standard correlation to a museum school visit 4th Grade Language Arts 4.2.1 Use the organization of informational text to strengthen comprehension.           Discuss with students how information in the museum is organized. A variety of labels provide background information about the exhibits. Other museum labels provide information about specific objects. Colors or text size can also give clues on what you are reading, and looking for larger or highlighted words can help you quickly find the most important information. 4.2.2 Use appropriate strategies when reading for different purposes.           Discuss the different types of reading to be done in The Children's Museum-for information, for directions, for entertainment. Invite students to find examples of each. When reading for information, find as much as possible about who? what? when? where? how? 4.2.4 Evaluate new information and hypotheses (statements of theories or assumptions) by testing them against known information and ideas.           Before entering an exhibit, discuss what students know related to the exhibit topic. Afterwards, discuss how new information or insights influenced what they already knew. 4.2.6 Distinguish between cause and effect and between fact and opinion in informational text.           Most of the information provided on labels is factual, not opinions. Discuss with students how they know the difference, and why facts are more important than opinions in a museum setting.           Listen to and read stories in Story Avenue on Level 3. Have students identify fact and opinion in the stories they listen to. Also ask them to identify cause and effect in the stories they read or hear. 4.7.1 Ask thoughtful questions and respond orally to relevant questions with appropriate elaboration.           Throughout the museum there will be various presentations that give additional information and ask inquiry-based question on exhibits. Encourage students to ask thoughtful questions and respond to question posed by the museum. Have students respond to each other's questions. 4.7.2 Summarize major ideas and supporting evidence presented in spoken presentations.           After museum presentations, discuss what students learned. Have them identify the main idea of what the speaker presented, as well as the supporting evidence the speaker gave. Social Studies Fourth Grade Indiana History:           Be sure to observe the many points of interest that relate to Indiana history at the museum. The 12,000-year old-mastodon was found near Greenfield in 1976. The Rueben Wells steam engine (used between 1868-1898) exhibit on Lower Level describes Madison and early commerce in Indiana. Visit the racecar and discuss the importance of the Indianapolis 500 and other races to Indiana cultural life and economy. Find local astronaut David Wolf's space suit and photos from his 1997 trip to Mir Space Station on Lower Level-did students know that most of the early astronauts, including Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, all graduated from Purdue University? 4.1.14 Distinguish fact from opinion and fact from fiction in historical documents and other information resources.           Explain that much of what we know about the past comes from artifacts, many of which are on display in The Children's Museum. For instance, when visiting the mummy exhibit in the What If? Gallery, discuss what we know about the ancient Egyptians based on what they left behind in their tombs and writings. Find displays about how scientists make inferences on what Wenu-hotep looked like based on her bones-they know how tall she was and that she walked with a limp. Science 4.1.1 Observe and describe that scientific investigations generally work the same way in different places.           Explain that the laws of science don't change from place to place on earth. Therefore, water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit everywhere and gravity always causes objects to fall no matter where you are. Thus scientists can do research anywhere. Students can visit the Biotechnology Learning Lab in ScienceWorks and see examples of research that is conducted in laboratories all over the world. See the School Programs Guide to register for a Biotech program. 4.1.5 Demonstrate how measuring instruments, such as microscopes, telescopes, and cameras, can be used to gather accurate information for making scientific comparisons of objects and events. Note that measuring instruments, such as rulers, can also be used for designing and constructing things that will work properly.           Be sure to register for a program in the Biotechnology Learning Lab in ScienceWorks. There students can perform many simple experiments using basic instruments like microscopes and measuring tools. Also see the complex tools that are used to extract DNA! Ask questions of the lab staff to understand how things work. 4.2.7 Identify better reasons for believing something than "Everybody knows that…" or "I just know" and discount such reasons when given by others.           Scientists perform experiments countless times to prove their hypotheses. Students may observe and participate in such experiments in the Biotechnology Learning Lab. Students can see for themselves how scientific fact is determined. Discuss appropriate sources of information, like science magazines or accredited websites. In infoZone, visit the lab's webpages at http://www.childrensmuseum.org/biotech/index.htm and the Dinosphere webpages at http://www.childrensmuseum.org/themuseum/dinosphere/index.html. 4.3.6 Recognize and describe that rock is composed of different combinations of minerals.           Find the geology display in ScienceWorks. What minerals can students see examples of? Observe the climbing wall. It is a simulation of limestone, a common stone in Indiana that is composed of many types of minerals-especially calcite, which makes up all the fossils found in limestone! Students may noticed the layered look of the rock wall-discuss how different strata of sediment were deposited and turned to stone, and that this causes the layering. While at the rock wall, find the Borden Sea Floor fossil to see a piece of the ocean floor that once covered Indiana. 4.3.7 Explain that smaller rocks come from the breakage and weathering of bedrock and larger rocks and that soil is made partly from weathered rock, partly from plant remains, and also contains many living organism.           Explain that as water flows, it gradually breaks up bedrock, first into large chunks of rock, then gravel, then sand, and eventually soil (which is combined with decomposed plant and animal materials). This process happens over a long period of time. Students can observe how particles are pushed and shaped by water in the interactive Fall Creek watershed display. 4.4.8 Know and explain that artifacts and preserved remains provide some evidence of the physical characteristics and possible behavior of human beings who lived a very long time ago.           Visit the mummy in the What If? Gallery. Wenu-hotep's body was preserved over 2500 years ago, yet we can examine her mummified body to know that she walked with a limp and was missing her two front teeth! Have students explore the gallery and discover the technology of how Egyptians preserved bodies, and also of how scientists today examine bodies from the past. Also observe the artifacts that were buried in mummy tombs. Discuss how archaeologists might determine the lifestyles of ancient Egyptians based on what objects they left behind. Discuss making inferences or "educated guesses" with your students. 4.6.1 Demonstrate that in an object consisting of many parts, the parts usually influence or interact with one another.           The Ball Machine at the entrance to ScienceWorks demonstrates how many mechanical parts work together to move balls through the machine. Can students identify what different parts and scientific principles are at work (springs, gears, gravity, etc.)? Help students find other examples of gears and pulleys working to move "construction materials" in ScienceWorks. Identify and find the five simple machines-inclined plane, lever, gear, pulley, wheel. 4.6.4 Observe and describe that some features of things may stay the same even when other features change.           Discuss with students the passage of time and changes in the physical landscape. Find the Borden Sea Floor fossil from the ocean bed that once covered Indiana 300 million years ago. Have students identify fossils of animals that no longer exist today. Then have them compare the fossils to animals found in oceans today.

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