Lessons

Grades preK – 4

MATH / ART –
Ship Shape: Students will demonstrate their understanding of basic shapes by using several cut out shapes to form a ship.
(Grades PreK – 1)
TECHNOLOGY / ENGINEERING –
Punkah Louvres and the History of Ventilation and AC: Students will learn about the history of Punkah Louvres, ventilation, and AC on ships. This can be used for history, technology, or engineering and features discussion questions as well as an NGSS-aligned experiment.
(Grades K – 2, 3 – 5)
SCIENCE –
Salt Water Density Experiment: Learn how salt effects the density of water with this quick-and-easy experiment found with items around the house.
(Grades K – 4)
SCIENCE –
Refrigeration on Ships: Have your students create an experiment to see what materials keep items colder longer.
(Grades K – 4, 5 – 8, 9 – 12)
SCIENCE / ENGINEERING –
Buoyancy with Lego Boats: Conduct a sink or float experiment and then test buoyancy by building Lego boats.
(Grades K – 4)
SCIENCE –
Wind and its Impact on Ships: Students will learn what causes wind, how scientists measure wind, and how it impacts ships. This NGSS-standards-aligned Earth Science lesson includes an activity to create a wind vane to measure the direction of the wind.
(Grades K – 4, 5 – 8)
SCIENCE –
Visual Thinking for Museum Objects: Have students use visual thinking strategies to learn about museum objects and navigation.
(Grades K – 4, 5 – 8, 9 – 12)

Grades 3 – 5

SOCIAL STUDIES –
Immigration Then & Now: Have your students learn with primary sources and oral history in this lesson on immigration. Compare and contrast differing immigration stories from 1920 and 1956 on steamships with immigration today.
(Grades 3 – 5, 5 – 8)
SOCIAL STUDIES /
TECHNOLOGY –
Ida Lewis Lighthouse Keeper: Students will learn about the role of lighthouses in maritime navigation and communication and how and why women held this federal position in the nineteenth century by examining RI’s Ida Lewis.
(Grades 4, 5 – 8, 9 -12)
ENGINEERING / CS –
Aluminum Foil Boats: Make aluminum boats to learn how CS is a fundamentally problem-solving discipline.
(Grades 3 – 5, 5 – 8, 9 – 12)

Grades 5 – 8

SCIENCE –
Climate Change and the Great Lakes Shipping: Students will learn about the history of ocean shipping, how shipping on the Great Lakes differs, and how climate change may affect shipping in that region.
(Grades 5 – 8, 9 – 12)
SOCIAL STUDIES –
Floating Freedom School: Students will compare the story of John Berry Meachum who setting up a Steamboat classroom in the Mississippi River to circumvent an unjust law to the Civil Rights Movement’s strategy of civil disobedience. 
(Grades 5 – 8, 9 – 12)
SOCIAL STUDIES –
The Black Star Line: Learn the difference between primary and secondary source through the first black owned and operated steamship company, the Black Star Line.
(Grades 5 – 8, 9 – 12, college-level)
ART / SOCIAL STUDIES –
Life on Board- Charles Dickenson: Learn from a first hand experience of traveling on a steamship in the 1840s and create a project using one point perspective or book binding techniques.
(Grades 5 – 8)
SCIENCE / SOCIAL STUDIES –
Immigration and Disease: Teach students the history of immigration and disease in the late nineteenth and early twentienth century.
(Grades 5 – 8, 9 – 12)
SOCIAL STUDIES –
Black Sailors in the Age of Sail: Students will learn about the history of black sailors in America and can be assessed using short answer questions provided.
(Grades 5 – 8, 9 – 12)
SOCIAL STUDIES –
Life on Board- Passengers: Learn about the class difference of passengers and have students complete short answer questions.
(Grades 5 – 8, 9 – 12)
ART –
Jack Heaney and the Interior Design of the NS Savannah: Learn about color in interior design with this lesson about Jack Heaney and the design of the NS Savannah.
(Grades 5 – 8, 9 – 12)
ART –
The Art of Camouflage: Learn about the art of camouflage and how ship design in WWI was inspired by Cubism.
(Grades 5 – 8, 9 – 12)

Grades 9 – 12

SOCIAL STUDIES –
Chinese and Japanese Immigration to America: Use this lesson plan to teach about Asian immigration to Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States.
(Grades 9 – 12)
ENGINEERING /
TECHNOLOGY –
From Telegraph to Text- How Undersea Cables Connect Us All: Students will learn the engineering design process, how to cite scientific sources, and how to communicate their claims with evidence.
(Grades 9 – 12)
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ART –
Posner Maritime Art & the Move from Sail to Steam: Students can view paintings to understand the transition from sail to steam power.
(Grades 9 – 12)
SOCIAL STUDIES –
Desegregating the SS Columbia: Students will learn about racial tensions in 1940s Detroit, the fight to desegregate the SS Columbia, and the role of Thurgood Marshall.
(Grades 9 – 12)
SOCIAL STUDIES –
Italian Immigration to Providence: Learn about Italian immigration to Rhode Island on board the Fabre Line.
(Grades 9 – 12)
SOCIAL STUDIES –
Mississippi Steamboats- Enslavement and Freedom: Students will learn the ways in which steamboats facilitated the enslavement of people and the ways in which they allowed for freedom of movement and, for some, escape to the Northern states.
(Grades 9 – 12)
SOCIAL STUDIES –
The Holocaust, Jewish Refugees, and Steamships: Students will learn about the ways in which the United States and other Western countries were unwilling to open their borders to Jewish refugees from Germany and other European countries with Hitler’s advances.
(Grades 9 – 12)
ART / SOCIAL STUDIES –
Objects and Immigration Stories: Use this project based learning lesson to teach students art skills through interdisciplinary work with social studies.
(Grades 9 – 12)
MATH / SCIENCE / ENGINEERING –
Dimensional Analysis for Steamships: Students will learn how to use the method of dimensional analysis to solve simple problems. This method can be used to solve problems in math, science, and engineering.
(Grades 9 – 12)
CHEMISTRY –
Boiler Operator Lab Practical: Try this lab practical based on a boiler operator handbook.
(Grades 9 – 12)
ART –
Exploring The Fall River Line Interiors- Intro to Ceramics: Teach soft slab ceramics based on the interior design of the Fall River Line.
(Grades 9 – 12)
TECH / CS / ENGINEERING –
Building Cryptosystems – Secret Messages: Click on this cipher to view a lesson on how to encode and decode secret messages.
(Grades 9 – 12)
MATH –
Trade Statistics: Calculate percent increase and decrease with trade statistics.
(Grades 9 – 12)
MATH / SOCIAL STUDIES –
Merida Shipwreck: Use property lost in a shipwreck to calculate losses.
(Grades 9 – 12)
MATH / SOCIAL STUDIES –
Hudson River Line Food: Calculate spending and learn about the Great Depression.
(Grades 9 – 12)
Find the midpoint in ocean crossing
MATH –
Midpoint in Ocean Crossings: This lesson allows students to look at historical maps used in steamship travel to solve mathematical problems, finding the midpoint in ocean crossings.
(Grades 9 – 12)