National Air and Space, Udvar-Hazy Center

This week the boys and I went to the National Air and Space Museum, Udvar-Hazy center in Dulles, Virginia. (The Udvar-Hazy center is a satellite of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.) It is essentially a huge hangar with lots of airplanes hanging from the ceiling or sitting on the ground. There is a room on space exploration, where a space shuttle is on display. There is also an observation tower where you can watch planes taking off from and landing at Dulles Airport. They have an IMAX theatre, a gift shop, and a McDonalds. Free guided tours are offered regulary.

This is a great field trip for older students. My 5 year old got bored fairly quickly. His favorite part of the museum was "walking on the cat walks"--the raised walk ways where you can see the planes that are suspended from the ceiling. When someone asks him about his trip to the museum he doesn't even mention the planes. I liked the pre-1920's flight displays. This collection featured the old planes, but also china and collectibles with images of hot air balloons, famous aviators, and planes. My ten year old liked the supersonic jets--the Concorde and the Black Hawk. He was interested in how the planes could go that fast and how much it costs to develop, build, and buy fuel for the planes.

At home we've been discussing the science of flight. At the NoVA Homeschool Conference last weekend I was able to pick-up some free literature from the NASA booth. I also purchased a lap book kit on flight, it includes information on the history and science of flight.

The National Air and Space Museum's website features a lot of great resources for teaching about the history and science of flight. In the Teaching Resources section there are lessons entitled Milestones of Flight, How Things Fly, Embracing the Impossible (using primary resources to understand the way attitudes changed about flight in the early 1900's), and From Airmail to Airlines (exploring different careers in commercial aviation). There were more lessons, many of which were related to space exploration. The great thing is most of the lessons reference displays at the museums in the introduction for teachers, but can be used without going to the museum. There is an Online Activities section with games and videos. There are also two Electronic Field Trip options.

If you are interested in planning a trip to either the museum in DC or the Udvar-Hazy center or want to learn more about their teaching resources, visit their website at http://www.nasm.si.edu.

National Museum of the American Indian

Our field trip group went to the National Museum of the American Indian yesterday. Opened in 2004, this museum "features the lifeways, history, and art of Native Americans throughout the Western Hemisphere." (I took that description from the museum's "General Information" brochure.) They have a "Family Guide" available at the Welcome Desk, that is pretty good. It includes some activities and "blurbs" for parents to read to the children to get them engaged with some of the displays in the three main exhibit areas. (We didn't actually acquire the "Family Guide" until we were preparing to leave the museum, but I was still able to use it as a discussion starter to reflect on the things we had seen and learned during our visit to the museum.)

We took the Metro, which is an exciting adventure itself, especially for the little ones, to the Smithsonian stop. We ate lunch in the museum's cafe. Most of the group had packed lunches, but the weather wasn't very nice, so we had to eat indoors. A couple of members of the group got native cuisine from the cafe.

My kids and I like the exhibits on the fourth floor the best. This is where you find the "Our Universe" exhibit with displays on Native American myth and belief systems. Everyone liked the story screens, where they could listen to native myths, see the illustrations on the screen and speculate which stars in the sky (on the ceiling) were the ones from the story. They also liked the short film that featured two of the artists that had created pieces for that exhibit. Also on the fourth floor you find the "Our Peoples" exhibit. This features displays on Native American history. The boys seem drawn to the exhibit on the role of guns in Native American history. They also like the display of gold objects. I noticed the corn included among the gold artifacts, and tried to point out to the older kids that corn was just as important as gold to the lives of the indigenous peoples.

We also visited the "Our Lives" exhibit on the third floor. I liked the display areas for each of the ethnic groups or tribes. We spent a little time checking out the Pamunkey display, since that is a reservation in Virginia. Of course the kids liked the Bombadier, the ice fishing vehicle. Once we had wandered around the "Our Lives" exhibit, it was time to start back to the Metro. (We did stop by the Roanoke Museum Store on the second floor. Where my younger son had a melt down over a toy flute.)

The children seem to like the displays with the screens and pull out drawers in the landing area of the third and fourth floors. I think they like that they can pick their favorite piece in the display and then inspect it more closely by choosing it on the screen. They also seem to like all the television screens in the "Our Lives" exhibit that show Native Americans talking about their way of life or Native Americans participating in dances or festivals.

We had alot of fun and will probably try to go back when we have more time to spend at the museum. We spent about 2 1/2 hours at the museum, which includes the time we spent eating lunch at the cafe. I wish we'd been able to stay at least one more hour.

Visit www.AmericanIndian.si.edu for more information about the National Museum of the American Indian.