From Mrs. Donna Schmitt, Second Grade Teacher at Carver Elementary in Dubuque, Iowa – March 2, 2016
Carver second graders took a field trip to Independence, Iowa to the Heartland Acres Agribition Center on Wednesday, March 2nd. What was special about this field trip was that the students in Mrs. Valentine and Mrs. Maneman’s classes did not have to board a bus to get there. Instead, Craig Johnson, the museums executive director, took the children on a virtual field trip! He used an iPad and Skype software that he credits his 12 year old daughter for showing him how to use for the first time this week. The Skype session was arranged last week after students began asking research questions about Iowa’s agricultural history. One small reading group googled, “farming in the past†and it took them to a web-link titled, “A Tribute to Farming’s Past, Present and future.†After exploring this site, the students learned more about Heartland Acres, and determined that they would like to find out more about the museum. A simple phone call to Mr. Johnson was all it took, and the first ever Skype session between the museum director and an elementary school was scheduled.
Mr. Johnson began the virtual tour by showing Carver students the grand entrance to the building. One of the first pieces of history that the students were thrilled to see was a 1934 John Deere tractor. This tractor did not have rubber tires; instead it had steel wheels. Mr. Johnson explained that earlier tractor wheels were made out of wood. He also showed the students a tractor that was used in World War II. Just past the tractors the students took notice of Bessey the cow. This real life looking model helped students to see how farmers milked cows by hand in the past. Mr. Johnson next showed students a wooden wagon and an antique farm truck, and explained that these were two ways that a farmer would transport their milk into town. The next stop on the virtual walking tour included showing students how corn was shelled, ground and sifted to use as corn flour or feed for animals. It was fun to see an ear of corn placed into the sheller with kernels on the cob, and then with a few turns of a crank, the kernels landing in a bucket. When asked to guess how many kernels are typically on an ear of corn, Carver students learned that their estimates were way to low. To their surprise, one ear of corn holds about 800 kernels!
Second grade Matthew Plowman said that one of his favorite memories of the tour was seeing how Mr. Johnson made corn flour by spinning a stone in a circle. He also liked seeing different phones that people used in the past. He learned that, “There used to be phones that were big wooden squares and you needed to hold a circle up by your ear to hear the call.†Other artifacts students were shown on the tour included a doctor’s buggy, horse saddles, covered wagons, a log cabin replica, a large wooden windmill, wire fencing, a single bottom plow, saws, axes and other tools Iowa pioneers would have used.
Carver students are very grateful to Mr. Johnson for taking them on a journey through the history of farming, and for taking the time to answer inquiry questions about life in the past.
Sykpe Tour 2016 with Mrs. Donna Schmitt’s second grade class at Carver Elementary in Dubuque, Iowa
