ABSTRACT
Museums offer some of the most promising opportunities for students to actively engage in studying the past. For example, at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, students can experience the sights, sounds, and activities of an 1830s New England town. The town includes a working saw mill, tin shop, blacksmith shop, farm, and much more. Visitors are transported back in time through their experiences in this recreated village, and can dip candles, dye yarn, travel in a stage coach, cook over an open fire, play nineteenth-century games, and strut with the roosters and chickens. Old
Just outside of St. Louis, in Collinsville, Illinois, the Cahokia Mounds provide the opportunity to explore what is believed to be the remains of the largest prehistoric native civilization north of Mexico. The Cahokia Mounds, a National Historic Landmark and UNESCO World Heritage Site, is 2,200 acres of the archaeological remains of the main component of the ancient settlement. Students can stand on the ground where over 120 mounds were constructed and where in AD 1250 a city larger than London during the same period once stood. Here students can experience the power of walking on the grounds of a historic site.
