Teaching Trunks
The Teaching Trunk Program* is an outreach endeavor of the Transylvania Heritage Museum, located in Brevard, North Carolina. The goal of this program is to enable students to personally connect with western North Carolina’s history in a way that is authentic and meaningful. Each trunk incorporates historic artifacts, such as photographs, maps, documents, and objects, as well as instructional materials to assist teachers in facilitating learning opportunities that utilize the artifacts. Trunks are created around themes that are aligned to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study but are easily adapted to national standards. These trunks can be checked out by contacting the Transylvania Heritage Museum
*This program is made possible by the Transylvania Endowment of the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina the Transylvania County Board of Education and the Pisgah Forest Rotary Club.
Available Trunks:
Touring Transylvania's Economy-A Box Investigation.
The History of Education-An Immersive* Learning Experience
*Immersive learning is the process of learning with the usage of a simulated or artificial environment. The environment enables the learners to completely get immersed in the learning and in a way that feels like experiencing an actual learning environment.
Civil Rights: A National and Local Movement-A Box Investigation
Teacher: C. Whitman
The "Traveling Transylvania Trunk" was an absolutely wonderful learning tool for my fourth graders. The amount of time and energy that was taken to pull materials and construct lessons for this trunk was phenomenal and the excitement over the trunk and its contents was awesome. The lessons included in the trunk were right on track for fourth graders and covered many content areas. Students were able to learn so much about the history and economy of our county by analyzing photographs and artifacts. By allowing students to wear gloves and use magnifying glasses during these lessons, the students felt as if they were detectives searching through decades of Transylvania's history.
Teacher: M. Dolan
I loved this! The materials were well thought out and I was able to incorporate small group work with the six box investigations. As a follow-up, I will invite a few community members to speak to my students regarding the local economy.
