I think it’s something that will live with them for the rest of their lives.
Lessons Learned
Over the last five months, the students at Creston Academy in The Bronx, N.Y., have been learning about the heroes and history of baseball.
Now, those students have seen that history first-hand at the Hall of Fame.
Students and teachers from Creston took a day trip up to Cooperstown on Tuesday morning to visit the Museum and receive a guided lesson tour from museum teachers Bruce Markusen and Richard Payne. It was a capstone visit for Creston after the school received a full slate of remote videoconference lessons, beginning in January, as part of the Hall’s “Sandlot School of After School All-Stars” outreach program.
The Hall of Fame’s “Sandlot School” is made possible through support from Morgan Stanley, with “All-Stars” receiving hands-on baseball education at schools in the Bronx and Salt Lake City.
Markusen, the Manager of Digital and Outreach Learning at the Museum, has been conducting the videoconference lessons with the Creston students. The lessons, in alignment with Creston’s common core curriculum, have explored the relationships between popular school subjects and baseball.
Creston Academy teacher, Leo Singleton
Markusen said the students’ visit to the Hall helped give a three-dimensional face to many of the Museum’s artifacts he had alluded to in the digital sphere.
“Being here and being able to see exhibits that (teachers) referred to was a real thrill for the kids,” said Markusen. “With our Pride and Passion exhibit, for instance, we were able to point out a ticket to a segregated baseball game in Easton, Ga. It was great to reaffirm that and tie it in as a connection to the lessons.”
Approximately 40 Creston students, ranging from sixth to eighth grade, split into two groups and embarked on a tour of the Museum that lasted about two hours. In addition to seeing the Museum’s wealth of artifacts and exhibits, the students also engaged in an educational module called “Innovation: Tools of the Trade.”
“The ‘Tools of the Trade’ module chronicles the changes in baseball equipment over the course of the game’s history, and examines how the evolution of equipment led to rule changes in the game,” said Abbie Wilson, the Museum’s Manager of Onsite Learning. “It helps kids understand chronology and how new technologies causes society to adapt, which is a big theme in their social studies classes.”
After their tour through the Museum’s three floors, the groups continued on to the Museum’s Learning Center and tried on historic baseball uniforms and equipment. They finished their day by watching The Baseball Experience film in the Grandstand Theater.
Creston was the second “Sandlot School” from the Bronx to visit the Hall in recent weeks, following the P.S. 279 Captain Manuel Rivera, Jr. School in May. Salt Lake City’s Bud Bailey Community also participated in the “Sandlot School” for an eight-week distance learning program in March.
Leo Singleton, a teacher at Creston who traveled here with the students, said the videoconference lessons have helped his students understand the connection that baseball has with American society.
“For many of them who knew the game of baseball well, it was an opportunity to see something real,” he said. “They were able to get a virtual tour of the Hall of Fame.”
Singleton added that Tuesday’s visit enabled the Creston students to “touch history,” and that the physical interaction with the Museum’s exhibit has helped solidify the lessons they’ve been learning over the past half-year.
“I think it’s something that will live with them for the rest of their lives,” he said.
Matt Kelly is the communications specialist at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
