Interning with David Livingstone Birthplace
As an intern with the David Livingstone Birthplace Museum, Elena researched and created resources to go along with the workshops the museum provides for schools. There are three school workshops provided in the museum: Curious Cubs, Industrial Revolution the BIG Questions, and Agents of Empire. Each workshop was built from the Curriculum of Excellence and research. Elena’s task was to create resources for teachers to use with their students before and after they participate in these workshops. The aim of the resources are to introduce the topic to students and then reinforce what they learned at the museum.
Each of the resources Elena created were based on the workshops and used principles from the Guide to Antiracist Curriculum Development from the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights. At each step of the research, writing, and design process she worked with the Learning team at the museum to better understand what they need from the resource. The team is now looking forward to rolling out the resources with schools and getting teacher input on each resource.
Many of the activities in the booklets are researched based. In the Curious Cubs activities, Elena researched Melbawe one of the men who helped Livingstone during the lion attack. She learned about his everyday life and how important he was to the missions and then used the information to write a short story for classes to discuss. While researching for the Industrial Revolution the BIG Questions resource, Elena came across a story of a millworker. Using that story she wrote a Day in the Life activity, where three problems occur. Students then get to invent solutions to those problems using the constraints of the historical period. Lastly in the Agents of Empire workshop the task of research is given to the students to help them learn about the lasting effects of Empire and how different countries gained their independence.
The team is looking forward to continuing to refine these resources to better meet teachers needs.
