Teacher Program
Charting An Interdisciplinary Voyage
A Curriculum Development Workshop for Teachers Based on Massachusetts Frameworks for Grades 3-6
The next teacher program is scheduled for summer 2009. Please check back for information.
The Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks require upper elementary grade teachers to cover a very broad range of topics across several disciplines. An exploration of historic sea voyages can introduce multiple learning standards in a unified interdisciplinary curriculum.
The History and Social Science Framework for grades 3-6 specifies content related to exploration and maritime commerce. Topics include the China trade, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, whaling, fishing, shipbuilding, map skills, the interaction of buyers and sellers, port cities in Massachusetts, naval battles of the War of 1812, and the exploitation and management of natural resources.
Many of the standards in the Science and Technology/Engineering Framework at the same grade level deal with topics that complement one another when a sea voyage is used as an organizing principle. These include weather, the water cycle, the structure of the earth, inherited characteristics and adaptations, and the development of specialized tools for oceanography and navigation.
Links to frameworks in English Language Arts and Mathematics can also be made. Maritime literature is a rich source of texts and research materials for developing an understanding of chronological narrative, descriptive writing, and the use of primary and secondary sources; many cultures have stories of sea voyages in their folk tales and origin myths. Connections to mathematics include concepts essential to navigation (time, distance, latitude and longitude) and to the management of the economics of a voyage.
In a self-contained classroom there are clear advantages to a curriculum that explores connections between and among the disciplines. The sea voyage can provide those connections, and the Sea Education Association can help teachers develop them.
Fees Summer 2006:
Commuter Tuition: $500
Resident Tuition, with Housing on our Woods Hole Campus: $1100
3 Graduate Credits available for shore component: $340
1 Graduate Credit available for cruise: $100
(67.5 PDPs for the shore component, 22.5 for the optional cruise)
