The goal of LCHA’s Education Outreach Program is to enhance the school curriculum using the history of our three historic sites and the heritage of Lincoln County in an interdisciplinary manner. If you have a special theme you would like to bring to your classroom, please contact us. In addition to our staff, we have contacts with professional living history presenters who specialize in a variety of skills.
To partner with us on a program for your class, please contact Education Director Louise Miller at education@lincolncountyhistory.org!
Examples of Past Programs
Luke Suttmeier, teacher of Nobleboro Central School, requested help engaging his seventh grade students in a hands-on project to enhance their Wabanaki studies. Students constructed a wigwam on the school grounds. Before starting the work, a class presentation provided the students with historical background on the tools used, the design of the structure, and the materials necessary to complete it.
Becky Hallowell’s Wiscasset Elementary School students were reading Stopping to Home, by Lea Wait. Becky asked Education Director Louise Miller for help expanding on the historical details in the book. Lea Wait drew on historical events that affected Wiscasset itself, as well as other general historical details. These included the smallpox outbreak of 1806, the bounding out of children, straw braiding as a cottage craft, the War Of 1812, and the cooking of the Thanksgiving turkey. These insights furthered the students’ understanding of the book.
The Center for Teaching and Learning asked Education Director Louise Miller to design a presentation about immigration to the U.S. in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Louise, dressed as an Italian immigrant, visited with students in grades K-8. She showed students what she packed to bring with her, and discussed why there was an identification tag pinned to her shawl. For the upper grades, Louise prepared a four page paper titled “Settlers and Immigrants making Lincoln County, Maine their Home.” The paper highlighted immigrants who made Maine their home from the colonial era through the nineteenth century, their contributions, and a bit of related trivia, too.
