Learning the Ropes & Reading Too!

Program Description:  The USS Constellation Museum is pleased to offer five, 2 1/2-hour shipboard programs to students of Baltimore City Public Schools.  Each enrichment program employs the Literacy Links concept that reinforce student skills in reading, writing, vocabulary, and listening while focusing student attention.  Students tour the ship and are introduced to life aboard a mid-19^th century sailing, man-of-war.  Each program combines readings, question-answering, hands-on activities, and assessments with Maryland Voluntary State Curriculum reading and language goals.  Just as importantly, as they learn, students have fun!     

Address:      Pier 1, 301 East Pratt Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21202-3134

Website Address:  http://www.constellation.org/

Admission  Fee for Program:  The cost, $500 per session, is waived for Baltimore City Schools participating in the GBHA Transportation Grant Program

Person to Contact to Schedule Field Trips: Stan Berry

Title:   Director of Museum Interpretation & Education

Phone:  410.539.1797 ex. 466

Email:  sberry@constellation.org

Number of Free Trips Available:  7

Program Details

A series of five, 2 ½ hour presentations aboard USS Constellation combine shipboard hands-on activities and reinforce of reading and listening skills in support of Maryland Voluntary State Curricula.   

Each of the five programs provides students who board USS Constellation with a large dose of history, vocabulary and reading development, and fun.  Assigned the historically correct rank of “Ship’s Boy” nicknamed “Powder Monkey,” students train to take their places in the ship’s crew.  Immediately, their vocabulary begins to expand as they learn the parts of the ship, directional terms, and shipboard commands and expressions.  Beginning with the first activity, a word association, Simon-Says game, “Stand Like a Sailor,” students develop a sense of sounds, rhyming, and assonance as they learn a new nautical vocabulary.  Each program provides tours of the ship and readings of the sea, after which students focus on one of five particular areas of the ship and begin to develop a more specialized vocabulary and skill set.  At the end of their 2 ½ hour program, learning is reinforced in a written exercise and assessment.  The results will be forwarded to the teacher.  Each program provides a different approach toward reading and listening development and reinforcement, but they all involve hands-on activities, fun, and they each culminate with a live-firing of one of the ship’s cannon.   

Division One:   “Blowin’ in the Wind.”  Did you know that sailing ships can move in directions that the wind is not blowing?  How is that?  Come aboard and brace the yards!  Then, learn the language of the sea and how great sailing ships move across the oceans. 

Division Two:  “Heave ‘round!”  Did you know that as few as 80 sailors could move the ship through the water even if the wind was not blowing?  How can that be?  Come aboard and heave the capstan ‘round.  Find out how the anchors are hauled off the sea bed and how the 7,500 pound cannon were brought aboard.   

Division Three: “Man the Guns!”  Constellation’s great guns required a crew of 14 sailors and one “powder monkey.”  Students step on to the gun deck where they learn to operate the huge cannon.  After learning the language and the basic skills of the gun deck, students demonstrate their mastery in gun drill races. 

Division Four: “Where are We?”  Once out at sea, ship’s traveled around the world on oceans and seas where street signs did not exist.  How did they do that?  Students learn about and use compasses and charts as they first plot their way around the deck, then the harbor, and finally, around the Chesapeake Bay.  

Division Five: “The Buoyancy Challenge.” A lot needs to be considered when designing a sailing boat.  Students learn about the main considerations as they design and build their own boats that float.  Using aluminum foil, paper, and popsicle sticks, students create boats that float, and they compete to see whose boat can carry the most cargo.    

For more information, or to make reservations, please contact:

Stan Berry
Director of Museum Interpretation & Education

The USS Constellation Museum

Pier 1, 301 East Pratt Street

Baltimore, Maryland 21202-3134

410.539.1797 x466
sberry@constellation.org