On Wednesday, November 18, 2009, the Rock Prairie Montessori third graders, Cavanaugh Mair and Nathan Staddler,  took a trip to the Logan Museum of Anthropology at the Beloit College in Beloit, WI.  Students learned what a Curator does.  Curators study artifacts and catalog information about them and teach others what they learn.  The third graders put on gloves to protect their hands and to protect the artifacts they were able to handle.  They studied the artifacts, described them and matched them with other artifacts with similar qualities.  There were five artifacts along with a mystery object (a pine needle basket). 

 Students were able to go inside a large glass room called “the cube” which is climate and light controlled.  This room is where the artifacts are kept.  Each student was able to find artifacts from the Native American Tribe they are studying in their classroom.  The students analyzed those artifacts and will share what they learned in their own museum in their classroom.  Nathan Staddler is studying the Hopi Tribe of the Southwest and Cavanaugh Mair the Kwakiutl Tribe of the Northwest.

The Rock Prairie Montessori School third graders would like to thank Dan Bartlett and his student assistant, Kelsey for this amazing field trip.