MGD - DE Agricultural Museum and Village School Tours

The Delaware Agricultural Museum and Village
302-734-1618
Take the online tour

Meet Cecile Steele

The Delaware Agricultural Museum & Village offers educational opportunities and programs for all ages. All the Museum’s exhibits, and the Loockerman Landing 1890 Village setting are incorporated to immerse students into rural culture, to offer insight into changing technologies, economics, arts and history, and to inspire creative inquiry.

The Tours:
*Fruits of Toil and Soil:* *Rural Economics*	*Neccesity Fuels Invention*	*The Fabric that Binds:* *Textiles and Culture*

The Details and More:
Meet the Standards	Tour Details	Tiny Tot Programs
Classroom Resources		Book your tour online...

Meet the Standards at the Museum!
The standards that are incorporated into our tours at the Delaware Agricultural Museum and Village:

Civics:	Two	Understanding the principles and ideals underlying the American political system. (Politics)
	Three	Understanding the responsibilities, rights and privileges of United States citizens. (Citizenship)
	Four	Developing & employing the skills necessary for effective, participatory citizenship. (Participation)
Economics:	One	Analyzing the potential costs and benefits of personal economic choices in a market economy. (Microeconomics)
	Two	Examining the interaction of individuals, families, communities, businesses, and government in a market economy. (Macroeconomics)
	Three	Understanding different types of economic systems and how they change. (Economic Systems)
Geography:	One	Developing a personal geographic framework, or “mental” map and the uses of maps and other geographics. (Maps)
	Two	Developing a knowledge of the ways that humans modify and respond to a natural environment. (Environment)
	Three	Developing an understanding of the diversity of human culture and the unique nature of places. (Places)
	Four	Developing an understanding of the character and use of regions and the connections between and among them. (Regions)
History:	One	Employing chronological concepts in analyzing historical phenomena. (Chronology)
	Two	Gathering, examining, and analyzing historical data. (Analysis)
	Three	Interpreting historical data. (Interpretation)
	Four	Developing historical knowledge of major events and phenomena in world, United States, and Delaware history. (Content)

Tour Details:

All tours are $2.00 per person.
Half-day programs are available for small groups at $5.00 per person.

Tour fee assistance for visitors with mental retardation is available
through a grant from the Delaware Foundation of Retarded Children.

Picnic areas are available. Trash bags are provided.

Also available:

Complementary pre-visit for the teacher.
Pre-visit packets for the classroom and activity-filled Travel Trunk available.
10% discount in the Museum Store for the teacher.
Classroom Activity Packets available free of charge, with or without a tour.

Tour Bookings:

Please book all tours 4-8 weeks in advance. Book your tour online...
There is a $20.00 non-refundable deposit due 7-10 days after booking.
Cancellations must be received 24 hours in advance or payment in full will be expected.

Fruits of Toil and Soil:
Rural Economics

Students explore what fueled the rural economy. Mechanisms of communication and travel, and how improvements changed the face of Delaware are studied through experience based activities and encounters with living history interpreters. The tour will feature 6 to 8 of the following activities depending on the number of students in your group.

Program Length: 2 Hours
Capacity: 120 students
2nd and 3rd grades: emphasis on past and present economies.
4th to 8th grades: emphasis on types of economics systems, regional trade, currencies,and interpreting historical data.

	*Train Station:* Morse code or flagging the train.
	*Rural Free Delivery:* Ordering By Mail
	*Mill Lane School:* lessons, recess and the seasonal nature of the school year.
	*General Store:* the cash, credit or barter system, shipping and receiving goods.
	*Farmhouse:* chores, crops and garden - a child’s role.
	*Barns and Meat House:* The role of livestock in the rural economy.
	*Agri-business Exhibits:* occupations driven or changed by the economy
	*St. Thomas Church:* social and spiritual connections of community.
	*Poultry Exhibit:* Cecile Steele's Dilemma.

Neccesity Fuels Invention

Students will explore the evolution of farming from simple hand tools through large multitasking equipment. Fast paced activities will involve math, geometry and the mechanics of simple machines.

Program Length: 2 Hours
Capacity: 120 students
2nd to 4th grades: emphasis on intuitive understanding of basic machines and how they improve life.
5th to 8th grades: emphasis on the use of physics, math and natural science to improve agriculture.

	*Swedish Log House:* hand hewn early Delaware.
	*Powering Inventions Exhibit:* discussions on the development of equipment that makes farming more efficient.
	*Poultry Exhibit:* Cecile Steele's Dilemma.
	*Evans Mill:* Simple machines that maximize human strength.
	*Johnson Blacksmith Shop:* creating & repairing tools, the blacksmith trade.
	*Farmhouse:* using domestic inventions.
	*Field Work:* surveying with a chain of rods, estimating yield, soil testing

The Fabric that Binds:
Textiles and Culture

This program covers the production of textiles and their uses in rural life.

Program Length: 2 Hours
Capacity: 120 students
2nd to 3rd grades: compare and contrast techniques and fashion.
4th to 8th grades: emphasis on social stratification, fashion, and the use of textiles.
9th to college level: Study of period textiles and clothing; social and religious influences on fashion.

	*Swedish Log House:* Women’s role in early settlement, discussion and spinning experience.
	*Weaving Demonstration:* simple weaving activity or discussion of automation and evolution of manufactured textiles.
	*Quilt Party:* quilt design as geometry, quilting activity, discussions of social and political aspects.
	*Harness Shop and Feed Bag Machine:* other related trades that support agriculture.
	*St. Thomas Church:* social aspects of clothing for work and status.
	*Mill Lane School:* hygiene and dress in education.
	*Train Station, Barber Shop and Store:* development of commercial goods and vanity trades.
	Barn: Lovey and Lola, our raw materials.
	*New Wing:* historical clothing experiment from the inside out.

Tiny Tot Programs

Program Length: 1 hour
Program Capacity: 20 students
Pre- K to 1st grades

Farm Animals and Me A story of a little city boy who couldn’t get the cow to give him milk begins our tour. Experience milking our faux cow and ride our buggy with our stationary horse in the Touch of History room. We will make ice cream or butter that the children will be able to enjoy. See our farm animals: Lovey and Lola our twin Lincoln sheep and Sundae our goat. Find out responsibilities of caring for animals.

Travel Through Time Experience what it was like for to be a child of the late nineteenth century. Stories set the stage to send a child of the 21st century into the late 19th century. See lanterns, toys, lunch pails and other objects that composed a child’s life. Lastly, tour our 1890’s village and wander the same path and visit the same buildings that children of the last century did.

Celebrate! Party like its 1899! Experience, Birthdays, Holidays, Teas and other special events in the life of a child in the 1890s. Themes change with the seasons. Participate in games, stories, treats, and presents!

Classroom Resources

Educational Packets for Classroom use:

Delaware During the Depression
(students grades 9-10)
An educational packet designed to illustrate the turmoil experienced by Delaware farmers during the Great Depression. This packet includes activities and resource sheets. We strongly recommend pairing this program with a tour of the Museum.

The Farmer and the Mail Order Catalog
(students grade 4)
Establishes how ordering by mail transformed the life of rural farming communities. Activities and resource sheets are designed for classroom participation. We strongly recommend pairing this program with a tour of our Museum.

Travel Trunk Program:
(students grades k - 4)
The Educational Collection comes to visit your classroom. Our trunks contain daily household items from a hundred years ago. This program can be accompanied with a visit from the Educational Staff.

Activities and worksheets for use in the classroom

For further information and to make tour reservations, please call the Museum office, Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm at 302-734-1618.

Don't Forget! The Delaware Agricultural Museum and Village has a shop with inexpensive educational books and toys for your students.

The Delaware Agricultural Museum and Village is a private, non-profit organization. Musical performances and storytelling are funded, in part, by the Delaware Division of the Arts.

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