SHORELINE — The Shoreline Historical Museum is more than just a resource for people in Shoreline. Students and visitors from neighboring communities visit the museum for a look into the past and to expand their knowledge of the region.
Earlier this month, third-graders from Maplewood Parent Cooperative in the Edmonds School District visited the museum as part of its social studies curriculum.
Vicki Stiles, the director of the museum, enjoys teaching students about the area, and the Shoreline School District began a partnership with the museum 10 years ago to begin using the museum as an educational resource. Now, all second-grade classes in the district visit the museum each year.
“Our mission is to tell people about the development of this area and how it came to be what it is today,” Stiles said.
When working with children, tour guides make the field trips as interactive as possible, she said.
“We try to get the kids involved,” Stiles said. Guides ask a lot of questions to get students thinking, which helps them remember more later on, she added.
The tours focus on a time line of events relating to development of the area with a concentration on transportation. Students learn that the progression of transportation in Shoreline started with boats, then went to trains, the Interurban and then cars and roads. The Maplewood students remembered and recited this time line proudly during their field trip.
“It’s really fun to see kids take an interest in history,” Stiles said.
Teacher Sharon Fortin organized the trip for Maplewood and has been doing so for years, she said. She teachers social studies to all of the third-graders at Maplewood.
“It’s important to learn about the development of the community,” Fortin said.
This is why she utilizes this field trip as an opportunity to spend more time concentrating on time lines, which is a focus of Edmonds’ schools.
Fortin takes time before the visit to prepare students by discussing aspects of the community they live in currently. They talk about transportation, school, stores, toys and other things, she said.
“We talk about our lives now,” Fortin said.
Then at the museum, students learn about how we arrived at today’s systems and lifestyles by learning about what used to be.
The students always enjoy themselves, Fortin said, and they love the hands-on features.
The museum contains an area set up like a classroom with old school desks and also a car from the 1920s and replicas of handmade wooden toys.
Fortin said the students especially enjoy sitting in the old classroom while on the field trip. One of the reasons for her interest in the museum is that Fortin attended Ronald School, which operated out of the current museum location.
She relays stories of her time at the school and what schools were like years ago for the students. She said they’re usually surprised that all of the uncomfortable desks were set up in rows and children were not allowed to speak to one another out of turn.
Students attend Maplewood from communities throughout the area, making the Shoreline Historical Museum a ideal field trip destination, she said.
Fortin encourages students to talk about the visit with family afterward, so the students can discuss more aspects about the region’s history with their parents.
Stiles said she sometimes sees children return to the museum with their families to look around again.
“That’s really heartening to know that it touches the kids,” she said.
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