Education Programs

See programs below or download and print our Education Matrix PDF.

Pre K - Grade 2

Go to Sea, Shoreside Business, Wind Power, Marine Ecology

Museum Exhibits/Galleries: Discovery Center

MA Curriculum Standard: Science, Technology and Engineering (STE) 2017 History and Social Science (HSS)

Pre-K

Observe plants and animals, the moon and sun
Investigate pitch and volume, shadow and light, liquids and solids, how things move
Sort by observable properties

Kindergarten

Basic needs of plants and animals and how they meet them
How plants and animals change their environment
Investigate motion of objects by changing the strength and direction of push and pull

Grade 1 – Patterns

Movement of sun, moon, and starts
Seasonal changes in weather (temperature and rainfall)
How animals use body parts and senses to survive
Observe and classify plants and animals (common behavior and appearance)

Grade 2 – Wholes and Parts

Environment as provider of food, water, and shelter for living
Landforms and water bodies and how they are shaped by wind and flowing water
Classify materials by similar properties and functions

Age/Grade: All

History & Highlights, History of Newburyport & Highlights of the Collection

Museum Exhibits/Galleries: All

MA Curriculum Standard: STE, HSS

Maritime history of Newbury and Newburyport
History of the Marine Society
History of U.S. Customs Service
Custom House building in Newburyport
Highlights of museum’s collections

Grade 3 & Up

Colonial Newburyport, Life in a Maritime Community at Home and at Sea

Introduction/Gould Gallery - fishing (fishing reels, sinkers & hooks; large 12” hook; dory; anchor; clam fork, clam scoop)

Moseley Gallery - boatbuilding with special focus on clipper ships (half-hull models; model showing ribs & framing; finished boat on ways with rigging; photo of ship launch)

Marquand - Revolutionary War period in Newburyport

MA Curriculum Standard: History and Social Science (HSS)

Grade 3

Using visual primary sources such as paintings, artifacts, historic buildings, or text sources, analyze details of daily life, housing, education, and work of the Puritan men, women, and children of the Mass. Bay Colony, including self-employed farmers and artisans, indentured servants, employees, and enslaved people.
Explain the importance of maritime commerce and the practice of bartering -exchanging goods or services without payment in money – in the development of the economy of colonial Massachusetts, using materials from historical societies and history museums as reference materials.
The fishing and shipbuilding industries
Trans-Atlantic and Caribbean trade, especially the Triangular Trade that included Africans to be sold as slaves in the colonies and goods such as sugar and cotton procured by slave labor to be sold in the colonies and in Europe
The development of seaport cities of New Bedford, Newburyport, Gloucester, Salem and Boston.

Grade 4 & Up

Newburyport and the World

Introduction - Gould Gallery - Native peoples to Gold Rush

Brown Gallery - Post-American Revolution Trade

Marquand Gallery - Privateering and Newburyport in the American Revolution

Baker Gallery - War of 1812, Civil War, and World War II

Moseley Gallery - Marine Society, ship building, and global trade

Bushee Gallery - Curiosities from around the world, decorative arts

Possible dates for timeline activity

12,000 BCE – Indigenous people arrive
1635 – Newbury settled
1675 – King Philip’s War
1764 – Newburyport separates from Newbury
1775 – Benedict Arnold leads troops to Quebec
1776 – Privateering / Revolutionary War
1789 – U.S. Customs District established in Newburyport, global trade
1791 – Revenue Cutter Massachusetts built (birth of Coast Guard)
1794 – Orlando Merrill invents lift, or waterline model
1812 – Captain Nichols & War of 1812
1835 – Custom House built
1851 – Newburyport becomes a city
1863 – Sonora burned by Alabama (painting of ship Anna Schmidt)

MA Curriculum Standard: HSS

Grade 5

Early colonization and growth (English and indigenous peoples, why British colonies were established, Triangle Trade, enslaved and free African Americans
Reasons for Revolution, the Revolutionary War, and the formation of the American Government
Growth of the Republic
- War of 1812
- Westward expansion
- Textile industry
- Whaling, shipping, and the China Trade; short and long term benefits of these industries
- Slavery, the legacy of the Civil War, and the struggle for Civil Rights

Grades 6 and 7

World Geography and cultures (includes ancient civilizations

Grade 8: Civics

High School

U.S. History
World History
U.S. Government & Politics (elective)
Economics (elective)

Grade 3 & Up

Whales & Whaling: whale characteristics, species hunted & why, Newburyport’s role in the industry, impact of the industry on whales, whales today

Discovery Center - whale vertebrae, skull, jaw, baleen, model of whaling vessel, harpoons

Coast Guard Gallery - whale oil bucket, lighthouses

Bushee Gallery - whale scrimshaw and decorative arts

MA Curriculum Standard: HSS

Grade 3

Explain the importance of maritime commerce and the practice of bartering – exchanging goods or services without payment in money – in the development of the economy of colonial Massachusetts, using materials from historical societies and history museums as reference materials.
The fishing and shipbuilding industries
Trans-Atlantic and Caribbean trade, especially the Triangle Trade that included Africans to be sold as slaves in the colonies and goods such as sugar and cotton procured by slave labor to be sold in the colonies and in Europe
The development of seaport cities of New Bedford, Newburyport, Gloucester, Salem and Boston

Grade 5

Early Colonization & Growth (English & Native people, why colonies established, triangular trade, enslaved and free African Americans) Reasons for Revolution, the Revolutionary War and the Formation of Government.
Growth of the Republic – War of 1812, westward expansion, textile industry, whaling, shipping, China Trade (short and long term benefits of these industries)
Slavery, the Legacy of the Civil War and the Struggle for Civil Rights

Age/Grade: All

Maritime Art

Fine & decorative arts including painting, sculpture, scrimshaw, and knot work

Carved figurehead of the ship Daniel I. Tenney and sculpture “Saunkskwa of Survivance” by Jeff Briggs

Collision of the Gladiator painting depicting the sinking of the Gladiator after it was struck by a steam-powered ship

Shipwreck Widow painting in the Coast Guard Gallery

Ship models located throughout the museum

Scrimshaw and decorative arts in the Bushee Gallery

MA Curriculum Standard:

Age appropriate activities. For any work of art students use thinking skills, art principals (line, shape, form, value, space, color, texture) and knowledge of history to make inferences about why the work was created, the story it tells, and why it is important to know about and preserve. Bloom: remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create.

Grade 3 & Up

Ships and Shipbuilding

Museum Exhibits/Galleries: Introduction, Moseley Gallery, Discovery Center

MA Curriculum Standard: History and Social Science (HSS)

Grade 3

Using visual primary sources such as paintings, artifacts, historic buildings, or text sources, analyze details of daily life, housing, education, and work of the Puritan men, women, and children of the Mass. Bay Colony, including self-employed farmers and artisans, indentured servants, employees, and enslaved people.
Explain the importance of maritime commerce and the practice of bartering – exchanging goods or services without payment in money – in the development of the economy of colonial Massachusetts, using materials from historical societies and history museums as reference materials
The fishing and shipbuilding industries
Trans-Atlantic and Caribbean trade, especially the Triangle Trade that included Africans to be sold as slaves in the colonies and goods such as sugar and cotton procured by slave labor to be sold in the colonies and in Europe
The development of seaport cities of New Bedford, Newburyport, Gloucester, Salem and Boston

Grade 5 & Up

Customs & the Coast Guard

Museum Exhibits/Galleries: Customs Exhibit, Coast Guard Exhibit

MA Curriculum Standard: History and Social Science (HSS)

Grade 5

Early Colonization & Growth (English & Native people, why colonies established, Triangle Trade, enslaved and free African Americans) Reasons for Revolution, the Revolutionary War and the Formation of Government.
Growth of the Republic – War of 1812, westward expansion, textile industry, whaling, shipping, China Trade (short and long term benefits of these industries)
Slavery, the Legacy of the Civil War and the Struggle for Civil Rights