Old Salem Museums & Gardens and the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts launch digital series: Exploratorium
Old Salem Museums & Gardens and the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) announce the premiere of the second season of the innovative “Old Salem Exploratorium” digital series for students in grades K–12. Initially created to serve students and educators as an emergency resource during the early days of remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Old Salem Exploratorium series quickly achieved tremendous success with thousands of viewers from at least 30 states joining online to learn from life in historic Salem, North Carolina.
Exploratorium uses the stories of the people living in and visiting 18th- and19th-century Salem, N.C.—Moravians, Africans and African Americans, and Indigenous peoples—to explore topics in science, math, reading, social studies, and the arts. For example, students engage with Old Salem’s education coordinators to learn about the geometry used in building a plank-back chair or observe chemical reactions in the forge.
“The people of Salem and the Wachovia Tract of North Carolina have left us unique tools for learning about all subjects. Lessons about these core curriculum subjects can be found within stories of how these people lived and worked,” Karen Walter, Old Salem Museums and Gardens director of learning in place, said. “Our new education coordinators, which include master teachers, are working hard and with great enthusiasm to create new videos and accompanying teacher resources to supplement instruction taking place in homes and classrooms across the state and country. The Exploratorium resources are aligned to standards, making them a creative digital resource for students and teachers.”
The Exploratorium digital series and the accompanying teacher resources can be found on the Old Salem website: oldsalem.org/exploratorium.
