Whydah History And STEM Curriculum
The Whydah Pirate Museum offers curriculum guides and lesson plans to help educators utilize the history and science behind the Whydah’s discovery in their classrooms. The museum’s education materials have been designed specifically with Massachusetts standards in mind.
While the museum’s curriculum guides and lesson plans work best in conjunction with a visit to the Whydah Pirate Museum, a field trip is by no means required. The content and lesson activities will function effectively independent of a visit. Teachers and students who do participate in a class trip, though, will find these lessons greatly enhanced by hands-on encounters with centuries-old artifacts, maps and artwork, and conservation tools and equipment.
The museum’s curriculum has been organized into two categories: History and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). For educators interested in history and social studies, please visit our history curriculum page. For educators interested in science, oceanography, archaeology, and underwater technology, please visit our STEM curriculum page.
The museum has also crafted a multidisciplinary Unit Plan that uses the true story of the Whydah to teach upper-elementary school students skills and standards in history, science, and language arts. While each lesson plan can function independently, as a multi-lesson exercise the entire unit illustrates how multiple academic disciplines can work together. Please contact [email protected] to receive a digital copy of this Unit Plan and corresponding lesson materials.
The museum’s curriculum has been organized into two categories: History and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). For educators interested in history and social studies, please visit our history curriculum page. For educators interested in science, oceanography, archaeology, and underwater technology, please visit our STEM curriculum page.
The museum has also crafted a multidisciplinary Unit Plan that uses the true story of the Whydah to teach upper-elementary school students skills and standards in history, science, and language arts. While each lesson plan can function independently, as a multi-lesson exercise the entire unit illustrates how multiple academic disciplines can work together. Please contact [email protected] to receive a digital copy of this Unit Plan and corresponding lesson materials.
The Whydah Pirate Museum History Curriculum and Educators Guide helps schools and teachers use museum resources to enhance their lesson plans and engage their students. The Educator’s Guide holds lesson descriptions and was designed specifically to fit the current Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Framework.
This unit plan has been designed by the Whydah Pirate Museum in association with the Center for Historical Shipwreck Preservation, to use the true story of The Whydah Gally to teach upper-elementary school students skills and standards in history, science, and language arts. While each lesson plan can function independently, as a multi-lesson exercise the entire unit illustrates how multiple academic disciplines can work together.
During these lessons, students explore local history and bits of related folklore through a reading comprehension and oral narration exercise. Straightforward physics and chemistry experiments demonstrate how a scientific understanding of natural processes helps uncover and conserve the past. Activities in geography, demographics, and economics illustrate the larger forces that impacted and influenced the central characters of the Whydah‘s chronicle.
The creators of these lessons hope that the use of the Whydah‘s history and artifacts will remind students that these exercises—both ours and theirs—are not fruitless or trivial endeavors, but honest efforts to reveal, understand and sustain the legacy of ordinary people, who lived extraordinary lives.
Pricing and Invoicing
Groups are strongly encouraged to have payments made prior to arrival. We are happy to send an invoice with final headcounts and values a week prior to field trips. A separate email is sent via our Museum Manager, Meredith Katz.
In preparation for the trip, we highly suggest having our educators come to your school for a pre-lesson, this is a slide presentation about Black Sam Bellamy and the Whydah so that students have a deeper understanding of the history of the Golden Age of Piracy and would get a richer experience at the museum. There would be a small fee of $125 added for the lesson, ($200 if needed to be presented multiple times) but we find that students are so much more prepared!
Our prices includes: the exhibit hall, conservation lab, and lesson which are reflective of grade:
- 1st-6th graders $7 per student, $10 chaperone
- 7th-high school $9 per student, $10 chaperone
Camps, scouting groups, church groups follow grade pricing.
We prefer a 15:1 ratio, student to adult.
PDF Downloads (For History & Social Science)
Grades 3-5 Course Offerings
Grades 3-5 Educators Guide
Grades 6-8 Course Offerings
Grades 6-8 Educators Guide
Contact Information
To book your group, learn more about our courses, ask questions, or to check availabilities, please contact:
Jessica Sheppard
[email protected]
Educator & Archaeological Conservationist