Education

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?

  • 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?

  • 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?

  • 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)

 

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