South Street Seaport Museum’s school programs use a variety of learning methods to help students formulate a personal response to history and science. All programs can accommodate approximately 30 students. For reservations and additional information, call 212-748-8757, Monday- Friday, 9am-5pm.
DOCKSIDE ABOARD TALL SHIP PEKING
Ship Shape
Grades K-3/60 minutes/$130
Young greenhorns become sailors-in-training aboard the tall ship Peking. Through hands-on activities and guided exploration of the 1911 bark, students discover the conditions, responsibilities, and regimen of a sailor, and consider the value of community and teamwork on a sail across the Atlantic Ocean.
Taste of the Sea
Grades 4-12/60 minutes/$130
Board the tall ship Peking and experience the excitement of New York City during the height of the shipping era. Discover what it’s like to walk in the footsteps of sailors: haul the lines, raise a sail, and witness the past conditions that carried the Transatlantic trade of people, goods and ideas into the present day.
Know the Ropes
Grades 4-12/90 minutes/$180
How does an 8,400-ton ship move through the water without a motor or propeller? How can a 100-pound person raise a sail 50 times his weight? Pulleys, levers and planes are simple machines that we use every day to make our lives easier. Climb aboard the living laboratory of the cargo ship, Peking, and discover how these basic elements of physical science interconnect to make traveling long distances possible. Students will investigate and manipulate the forces of nature as they haul on a block and tackle and raise a sail.
It’s Alive
Grades 2-8/60 minutes/$130
Did you ever wonder what lives in New York Harbor? See and handle samples of local marine life in the Museum’s Living Harbor Wet Lab. Learn about our fragile ecosystem and how to protect it.
UNDERWAY ABOARD SCHOONER PIONEER
Ages 9 & up/90 minutes/$700
Join us for a harbor sail aboard our 1885 schooner Pioneer and see New York City from a fresh point of view. Pioneer provides a unique classroom in which students can develop environmental awareness and historical perspective. Students act as crew members by helping to raise the sails and participating in hands-on learning stations. Choose from one of the following programs:
Marine Ecology
Navigation
The Port of New York
Intro to New York Harbor
NEW YORK UNEARTHED
Archeology Adventure
Grades K-2/60 minutes/$130
Be an archeologist for a day and discover how found objects can tell us stories and teach us what it was like to live in New York City long ago. Students examine artifacts from each time period of Manhattan’s populated history and investigate what these objects reveal about the lives of the people who used them.
Underground History
Grades 3-12/90 minutes/$180
What is an artifact? What does an archeologist do? What can objects tell us about our shared past? Through this hands-on, inquiry-based workshop, students will reconstruct history through the artifacts archeologists have found beneath our very own city streets.
HISTORIC DISTRICT & WALKING TOURS
Reading Between the Bricks
Grades 3-12/90 minutes/$180
Take a walk back in time through the Seaport’s landmark historic district and discover the role buildings play in revealing history. Students learn to read a building as elements of design, materials of construction, and intended function reveal clues about the architectural development of one of New York’s most famous neighborhoods - past, present and future.
Ink, Roll Pull
Grades 3-12/90minutes/$220
The invention of the printing press revolutionized the world, and job printing played an important role in the development of the Port of New York. Students tour a 19th-century printing shop and participate in a demonstration on an iron hand press.
New Amsterdam Walking Tour
Grade 4-12/2 hours/$200
Discover what life was like for Manhattan’s early settlers as you take a walk back in time to Dutch New Amsterdam. Students use primary resources to trace the development of Lower Manhattan from 1600 to the present. Finish your program with a visit to New York Unearthed and view some of the artifacts from this time period that provide clues to the past.
Revolutionary War Walking Tour
Grades 4-12/2hours /$200
March through the streets of Lower Manhattan as you trace the footsteps of the men and women who lived during the revolutionary era of New York’s history. Transport yourself back in time as you experience the dawning of democracy on the steps of Federal Hall, rally at the Liberty Pole, discover how Wall Street got its name, and learn about the conflict that defined American freedom.
African American History Walking Tour
Grades 6-12/2 hour/$200
Hear the little known stories of some of the African-Americans who helped build New York. Students learn about the lives and accomplishments of some of the earliest New Yorkers by visiting such downtown sights as the African Burial Ground, Trinity Church and the site of the city’s original slave market.
AFTER SCHOOL
Teen Crew
Grade 10-12
The Teen Crew Program of the South Street Seaport Museum involves high school students, grades 10-12, in an extended internship during which they experience an engaging approach to learning. The Teen Crew Program provides participants with opportunities to develop skills in successful communication, critical thinking, visual literacy, peer-mentorship and responsible community leadership. Through interactive educational training, hands-on work with the museum’s visiting public, personal and collaborative projects and field trips, the program is designed to provide students with professional skills, experience and support that will aid them in pursuing higher education and building future careers. Students may receive/ fulfill internship credit hours through participation in this program.
For Additional Information or to Book a School Program at the Museum, contact:
School Programs
South Street Seaport Museum
12 Fulton Street
New York, NY 10038
Phone: 212-748-8786
Fax: 212-748-8610
schoolprograms@southstseaport.org