Education Overview
The museum’s educational programming is built around three core pillars. We work to illuminate the history of industrialization, beginning with the birth of the American System in the historic walls of our building 197 years ago, examine the field of manufacturing today, and look towards the technologies poised to shape our future. Our programming is for absolutely everyone, of any ability from K to Grey. From demonstrations in our Innovation Station and hands-on workshops to monthly exhibits and virtual STEM lessons, we have always have something new going on.
We also run a grant-funded hands-on STEM program, where we send free kits and curriculum, covering STEM topics related to the museum, to 4th-6th grade classrooms within a 90-minute radius of the museum. This year, we have already committed 2000 kits to teachers in the region.
STEM+M Kits
The American Precision Museum, in collaboration with SparkShop, has developed a series of free kits that give 4th to 6th-grade students a hands-on introduction to Manufacturing, STEM, and Design.
Our currently available kits are:
Experimenting with Energy
Achieving Repeatability
Measure the World
These lessons expose students to dynamic, engaging challenges that encourage critical thinking and translate to real-world problem-solving. Each curriculum begins with a brief history of local manufacturing before guiding students through small, achievable challenges reinforcing the kit’s central theme, such as building a catapult, designing tessellations, or constructing a water wheel.
The kits emphasize the importance of student innovation and creativity by encouraging participants to improve their constructions and design some of their own. The curricula also encourage students to draw their own conclusions about the consequences of the activities. For example, the Achieving Repeatability kit asks participants to carefully consider the “best” way to draw a circle after they’ve assembled and tested six different methods. Finally, all the lessons conclude by tying the ideas introduced in the unit to real-world careers.
The kits and their accompanying curricula are designed to be easily adaptable to remote, in-person, and hybrid teaching environments, and they’re aligned with CCSS ELA Literacy and NGSS Physical Sciences. Because each lesson is divided into a series of approachable segments, the time required for each box is extremely flexible; curricula can be completed all at once or over the course of several sessions. All of the kits are completely free, thanks to generous grants.
Request a kit:
Educators should fill out this form to sign up for free kits for their classrooms. We ask that you and your students complete the 5-minute survey after teaching the kit. Your feedback is essential in developing new kits and demonstrating to our funders the impact of the kits.
If you have any questions, please send an email to mholleran@americanprecision.org.
Achieving Repeatability Kit
What’s Included?
- A teacher guide that provides an overview of each unit, Cross-Content standards, and a sample agenda.
- Seven interdisciplinary units centered around repeatability.
- One kit per student with all the physical materials necessary for the lesson.
- Two student surveys, to be taken before and after the activity, and one teacher survey to help us improve the program in the future.
- Free strategy meetings, custom curriculum materials for your class, and teaching assistance upon request.
Topic Subject Repeatability in Shoe-making History Pen Deconstruction STEM Tessellation Cookie Cutters STEM Repeatable Catapult STEM Bill of Materials ELA Drawing Circles Art Career Spotlight with Jim Stokes Career
Educators, access your kit materials here.
Experimenting with Energy Kit
Whats Included?
- A teacher guide that provides an overview of each unit, Cross-Content standards, and a sample agenda.
- Seven interdisciplinary units centered around repeatability.
- One kit per student with all the physical materials necessary for the lesson.
- Two student surveys, to be taken before and after the activity, and one teacher survey to help us improve the program in the future.
- Free strategy meetings, custom curriculum materials for your class, and teaching assistance upon request.
Topic | Subject | |
Manufacturing in Vermont | History | |
Energy Transfer | STEM | |
Water Wheels | STEM | |
Writing Science Fiction | Writing | |
Simple Machines Dance | Physical Education | |
Wind Chimes | Art | |
Applications Engineer |
Career |
Educators, access your kit materials here.
Measure the World Kit
Whats Included?
- A teacher guide that provides an overview of each unit, Cross-Content standards, and a sample agenda.
- Seven interdisciplinary units centered around repeatability.
- One kit per student with all the physical materials necessary for the lesson.
- Two student surveys, to be taken before and after the activity, and one teacher survey to help us improve the program in the future.
- Free strategy meetings, custom curriculum materials for your class, and teaching assistance upon request.
Topic Subject Scale Drawings Math Detecting Forgeries Art Optical Comparator STEM Measurement Tools STEM Units STEM Measuring Sound Music Materials Engineer Career
Educators, access your kit materials here.
Reading Recommendations
We’ve found some great books that we think you’ll find helpful and interesting. Check them out below!
Author |
Title |
Find it: |
Edwin A. Battison | Muskets to Mass Production: The Men and the Times that Shaped American Manufacturing (1976) | Amazon |
Carrie Brown | Arming the Union: Gunmakers in Windsor, Vermont | APM Gift Shop, Amazon |
Wayne G. Broehl | Precision Valley: The Machine Tool Companies of Springfield, Vermont | Amazon |
David A. Hounshelll | From the American System to Mass Production, 1800-1932: The Development of Manufacturing Technology in the United States (Studies in Industry and Society) | Amazon |
Wayne R. Moore | Foundations of Mechanical Accuracy | APM Gift Shop, Amazon |
Harry Phillips & Terry Tyler | Vermont’s Gunsmiths & Gunmakers to 1900 | Amazon |
Merrit Roe Smith | Harpers Ferry Armory and the New Technology: The Challenge of Change | Amazon |
Simon Winchester | The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World | APM Gift Shop, Amazon |
Study of Robbins & Lawrence Armory | Study by Historical American Engineering Record/Historic American Buildings Survey | Read the PDF at the Library of Congress (free digital copy) |