Connecting Students With History
For for more information or to schedule a program,
contact the museum educator at educator@losalamoshistory.org or 505-695-5251.
contact the museum educator at educator@losalamoshistory.org or 505-695-5251.
Field trips will be limited this spring 2022, due to the filming of a movie in the historic district.
Scavenger Hunts
Engage your students with hands-on history while reducing their screen fatigue by setting them on a thematic scavenger hunt from the History Museum. The outdoor hunts focus on a specific era of our local history and support students in making connections between the past and the present.
Elementary school students can follow the scavenger hunts with their family, and middle and high school students can explore the hunts on their own. We also offer a smartphone-based virtual Cold War tour for high school students. Email educator@losalamoshistory.org to learn more. Teacher guides provide you with discussion questions for your class before and after the hunt, as well as an answer key. |
Field Trips
Plan a field trip to the Los Alamos History Museum. Our programs for classes are tailored to the grade level of your students and address core social studies learning standards.
A General Field Trip includes visits to: * Romero Cabin, an example of homesteading at the beginning of the 20th century. * Fuller Lodge, the historic heart of Los Alamos. * The Hans Bethe House, a step back into the 1950s and 60s. If your class is interested in exploring one specific era or time period, please let us know, and we can adjust the tour. A Green Glass Sea Field Trip is a special tour related to the novel Green Glass Sea. Students compare the text to actual locations and explore primary source photographs to learn more about the time depicted in the book. It also includes a museum scavenger hunt tied to the book. Tours for younger students are an hour, and tours for older students are an hour and a half. There will be plenty of time for students to ask questions, and the tour guide will also have questions for the students to consider and discuss. These trips are free and are available to classes in or out of Los Alamos County. Email educator@losalamoshistory.org to learn more and to schedule a field trip. |
Classroom Reading
The Secret Project Notebook
In this book, author Carolyn Reeder tells the story of Fritz, a seventh grader who arrives in Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project and quickly starts trying to uncover its secrets while making new friends and learning how to deal with bullies. This work of historical fiction allows students to learn some of the real-life history of Los Alamos and to gain an appreciation for what life was like for kids living here during the Manhattan Project.
After the students have finished reading the The Secret Project Notebook, the class can take an hour-long guided tour where they can connect events from the book and history with real locations in downtown Los Alamos.
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The Green Glass Sea
historical fiction
by Ellen Klages Viking, New York, 2006 It’s 1943, and eleven-year-old Dewey Kerrigan is en route to New Mexico to live with her mathematician father. Soon she arrives at a town that, officially, doesn’t exist. It is called Los Alamos, and it is abuzz with activity, as scientists and mathematicians from all over America and Europe work on the biggest secret of all–“the gadget.” None of them–not J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Manhattan Project; not the mathematicians and scientists; and least of all, Dewey–know how much “the gadget” is about to change their lives. We also offer a special field trip specifically tied to this book. |
Author's Official Page: Learn more about the author, Ellen Klages.
Educator’s Guide to the Green Glass Sea tied to Common Core Standards by Penguin’s Classroom Classics