NORTON MUSEUM – The Norton Museum allows tours for the first time since COVID.

On Monday, September 12, 2022, the AP World History class visited the Norton Museum. The Norton Museum allowed the students to view art from three exhibits – European, African, and Chinese. The Museum permitted the students to see visually what they are being taught in class. The students were able to learn outside of the classroom and see such great artifacts from different artists.

Their wonderful teacher, Ms. Nicolini, took the AP World students on this trip. Before taking her students to the Norton, Ms. Nicolini had the pleasure of visiting the museum herself. Nicolini believed that this field trip would benefit her students further in their studies.

“This specific class takes us from 1200 AD to the present time, and I thought this would give a real-life view of history,” says Ms. Nicolini. She feels as though students may think that some history may not be relevant to their lives now, but it is still incredibly important to learn about and will benefit students well beyond the classroom. All three groups were shown the exhibits at the museum and learned about things they may have not known. Ms. Nicolini says that she was also learning from the docents as they spoke about the three exhibits.

“I took this group of students because I felt that they would benefit from going to the museum,” says Nicolini. She holds her AP World class to a very high standard and thinks they are an amazing group of kids to have taken on this trip. Ms. Nicolini has two other classes – Cultural Geography and AP Human Geography. Ms. Nicolini would like to give her AP Human Geography the same experience next year. As for her World Cultural Geography class, this would be a great trip for them, but she would also like to wait until they are in AP World History.

“I think some highlights were being able to have docents there and being able to make connections,” says Nicolini. The docents were volunteers of the museum that took their time to show our students around the exhibits. Each group had a docent who was able to teach the students about the artifacts through their knowledge. Some students had prior knowledge before going to the museum, so it made it easier to connect with the different exhibits. The docents were very helpful to the students and took their time teaching the groups more information. Ms. Nicolini also enjoyed coming back with her students and allowing everyone to share what new information they learned from the exhibits.

One thing that Ms. Nicolini would change about the trip would be the amount of time spent there. The students were there from 10 A.M. to about 1 P.M. Ms. Nicolini would have liked to have her students visit the other exhibits that the museum had to offer. The students had the pleasure of eating lunch at the Norton Café, where they each bonded and had amazing food.

“They weren’t going to open the museum until October, but they were very gracious to open the museum to Jupiter Christian’s students.” The museum has not allowed educational tours since the start of COVID, which was in the year 2020. Ms. Nicolini would most definitely take her AP World students back to the Norton Museum. She would like her students to take a whole group tour together so that they can experience it as one big group. Ms. Nicolini’s goal is to take these amazing students back to the Norton Museum next year.

Overall, the Norton Museum was a beneficial trip to take the AP World students on. Ms. Nicolini and her students had a marvelous time on this educational tour. Ms. Nicolini encourages all of her students to go back to the Norton Museum since they were all given passes to visit once again.