Welcome To The New Education Resource!

This Week We Feature The Center for Wooden Boats

The Center for Wooden Boats (with locations in both Seattle and Camano Island) provides a gathering place where nautical history comes alive in hands-on maritime experiences using fleets of historic wooden boats.  The Center for Wooden Boats showcases and honors the history and time-tested maritime skills of sailing, paddling, boatbuilding, and boat maintenance.  Sailing lessons and many other adult and youth classes are offered at each site.

The Center for Wooden Boats provides educational opportunities for a variety of age groups and curricular needs. The programs use the maritime environment and classic wooden boats to engage students in the Pacific Northwest’s unique culture, history, and natural setting.  CWB field trips allow educators to bring student groups to The Center for Wooden Boats for adventure on the water paired with hands-on learning.

Curriculum activities for the Golden Age of Salmon unit look at gillnetting and its effects on salmon.  This unit encourages students to consider the benefits of working in a cannery and what problems may have come up when immigrants from all over the world worked together in canneries.  The Umiak Adventure Curriculum takes an in-depth look at the historical and current uses of this type of boat.  Both units include basic boat etiquette, nautical terminology, math activities, and hands-on boat building. These projects were funded in part by 4Culture HCE program. 

Two documentaries have been produced by The Center for Wooden Boats and each provides a unique insight into the maritime history of this region: Of Line and Motion: A Shipwright’s Tale and Wooden Boats and Golden Dreams. These documentaries will supplement classroom activities that look into the maritime history of the Pacific Northwest.

Recently it was disclosed in The Seattle Times that due to financial shortfalls, this city treasure will be forced to cut hours, staff positions, and several annual events.  Many local historical societies and museums are facing similar difficult budgetary decisions.  Funding groups, museum boards, and government agencies need evidence that the educational programs provided by these organizations are vital and valuable resources -- and deserve reliable sustained support. Educators, librarians, historians, and students can show their support by visiting the museums, taking part in their onsite and outreach programs, and utilizing their archives and research facilities.  Take a look at the many classroom resources developed by your city, county, and state heritage organizations that are identified and featured in this Education Resource -- curriculum, field trips, documentaries, speakers, and more -- and use them to design and enhance Social Studies experiences for your students.

Image courtesy Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society

About the HistoryLink.org Education Resource

HistoryLink.org in partnership with Heritage 4Culture has developed an enhanced Education Resource featuring valuable curriculum materials and other important resources for educators and students.

Since its debut in 1998, HistoryLink.org has served as an essential education resource; educators and students make up over one-third of its traffic. These students and educators have told us they use HistoryLink.org because of its free, authoritative, and easily accessible content.

After 10 years, however, it was time to find out from these users how HistoryLink.org could further provide current and relevant Washington state education resources. Based on the input received from social studies teachers, librarians, students, museum educators, and others who regularly use HistoryLink.org for classroom and heritage projects, new resources have been identified, created, and posted. Curriculum and other heritage education projects developed through 4Culture Heritage Cultural Education Program are featured

HistoryLink.org is a constantly evolving website with new essays and timelines added weekly. The Education Resource is in its infancy and will be regularly updated with new content, curricula, and links representing organizations and individuals from across the state Washington.  We encourage continued feedback on this page and its resources. Please contact education@historylink.org. with input, suggestions, and related projects. By becoming a subscriber to HistoryLink.org, educators will receive even more up-to-date information about new materials and resources for the classroom as they are added to this page.

Education Initiative – HistoryLink.org’s two-year project to update educational resources and to increase outreach to educators

What Educators are Saying – Educators from across the state respond to HistoryLink.org