FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For information contact: Elizabeth Lee, Education Director, LCMM 802 475-2022 ext. 102 or elizabethl@lcmm.org
New Adult Courses in Archaeology, History, Ecology, and Education at Lake Champlain Maritime Museum
Get beyond the classroom – this summer Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (LCMM) takes learning out on the lake, partners with Abenaki artists, and digs into the archives with new courses. Designed to provide graduate-level professional development, the classes are also exciting for homeschool parents, historical societies, watershed volunteers, and other interested people. Courses run from one to five days, with academic credit through Castleton University optional. Registration is now open. Learn more below, online at lcmm.org/learn/for-teachers/professional-development, or contact LCMM’s Education Director Elizabeth Lee at elizabethl@lcmm.org or (802) 475-2022 ext. 102.
Learning from the Lake: Using Primary Sources to Teach Key Proficiencies. June 24-27, Presentations on August 19, 2019. In this seminar, Castleton University Professor Dr. Harry Chaucer explores how to use Expanded Learning Providers (ELPs) such as the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum to make learning more empirical, Inductive, and personal for students. Morning and afternoon sessions mix sensory-rich experiences with immersive learning practices that culminate in final collaborative projects.
Phoenix Burning. July 1-3. Take in-depth look at the earliest steamboat shipwreck in North America, the steamboat Phoenix (1815-1819), on the 200th anniversary of its epic demise. Join LCMM Archaeological Director Chris Sabick to review first-hand accounts of the steamboat’s final moments, together with archaeological data and artifacts collected from the wreck site – then piece together the details. Do we have the full story? Does the archaeological evidence confirm the published conclusions? Offered in conjunction with our 2019 special exhibit on steamboat pioneer Captain Jahaziel Sherman of Vergennes.
Special Topics in Lake Champlain Natural History, July 15-19. Explore the lake with LCMM ecologists Elizabeth Lee and Matthew Witten in a variety of hands-on field-science activities and research. Choose up to five days from a menu of natural communities, water chemistry, diatoms, zooplankton, freshwater mussels, and fish – or immerse yourself in them all! Courses are modular and can be taken individually or as a series. Special Topics goes mobile! The course will be offered in collaboration with the St. Albans Museum and local coordinator Neal Smith who attended our 2019 course at LCMM. Location: Kamp Kill Kare State Park, St. Albans, VT. This program is supported in part by funds from the Lake Champlain Basin Program.
Champlain Colloquium, August 1. Scholars of French and Quebec history, high school teachers, and interested community members gather to discuss research on the life and times of Samuel de Champlain, with a special emphasis on how themes from the seventeenth century are still relevant today. A primary goal of the Champlain Colloquium is to help teachers actively engage their students in lines of inquiry and field trips that bring alive the influence and legacy of Champlain’s arrival in North America. Keynote speaker David Hackett Fischer will present remotely, Samuel de Champlain, the Humanist.
Presenting Abenaki Culture in the Classroom, August 8-10. Abenaki culture in this region reaches back 13,000 years and continues today. Vera Longtoe Sheehan, Director of the Vermont Abenaki Artists Association; Melody Walker Brook, Adjunct Professor, Northern Virginia Community College; and other VAAA scholars, historians, and culture bearers present up-to-date information and new resources, from archaeology and history to contemporary music and social justice issues. In its third year, this course is designed to provide teachers with a deeper understanding of indigenous culture is expressed in the 21st century and how to support Abenaki and Native students while presenting American history.
About Lake Champlain Maritime Museum
Founded in 1985 to preserve and share the maritime heritage of the Champlain Valley, Lake Champlain Maritime Museum shares underwater discoveries and lake history with the public through engaging exhibits, dynamic hands-on learning opportunities, full-scale working replica vessels, and innovative on-water experiences. As a year-round educational service provider, Lake Champlain Maritime Museum connects with more than 2,500 Elementary and Middle School Students each year through valuable place-based learning, ecology and nautical archaeology experiences and other programming with museum educators. Lake Champlain Maritime Museum’s 4-acre lakeside campus at Basin Harbor is open daily from late May through mid-October. Perkins Pier in Burlington is homeport for LCMM’s canal schooner Lois McClure.