For Educators

Our Educator Packet outlines all of our available programming options.

Virtual Field Trips

Are you looking for interactive and engaging virtual experiences for your students? How about a virtual field trip where your students can travel back in time to Mecklenburg County in the early 19th century?

Each virtual field trip option is an inclusive discussion of the lives of children and adults, free and enslaved people, wealthy and yeoman farmers, women and men.
The session will be a 30 minute face-to-face interactive introduction to one of the key themes our site highlights.

You can select from the following options:

  • Discussion of historic cooking, food ways, and chores in the Historic Kitchen House
  • Discussion of domestic life, sleeping arrangements, and toys in the Main House
  • Discussion and demonstration of what fibers were used to make cloth, fiber processing, spinning, and dying in Fibers of the Backcountry
  • Discussion of militias, military, and hunting in the Long Rifle Firing Demonstration (limited availability)

Cost: $3.00/student. (Minimum of $30.00 charge)  Contact us with questions!

In-Person Field Trips

(Please note that we are currently accepting in-person field trips for the 2021-2022 school year. We ask that interested groups keep flexibility in mind as we adapt our policies to conform to evolving health guidelines)

Join us for an in-person field trip to learn what life was like when the future president, James K. Polk, was a child in rural Mecklenburg County at the turn of the 19th century. Polk spent the first decade of his life here with his parents, Samuel and Jane, four siblings, Jane, Lydia, Franklin, and Marshall, and at least four people enslaved by the family, including Lucy, Violet, and Elias. Visit two fully furnished log cabins, a kitchen garden, historic cemetery, and museum.

Using the Polk family’s history as a frame, students will engage with topics that had a lasting impact on the history of North Carolina. Students will be asked to compare and contrast their lives with the historic environment they will see on their tour and explore the meanings in the similarities and differences; this gives students a chance to practice their argumentation, observation, and communication skills. All programs are aligned with the latest educational standards set forth by North Carolina’s Department of Public Instruction.

Topics covered include: slavery, agricultural life, natural resources, migration, inherited wealth, technological advancements, transportation, historic trades, cultural values, cotton, nutrition, foodways, education, fabric arts, and religious beliefs.

Charge: Basic School Tours- $6.00/student.* STEAM program- $10.00/student.

*Minimum of 10 students or $60.00 charge. Rate reductions available for Title 1 schools and those using Arts and Science Council funding. Additional charge for add-on experiences may apply. Contact us with questions!

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