New Bedford in the 1800s

At Our Sisters' School (OSS), the sixth grade integrated humanities and arts unit “New Bedford in the 1800s” hinges on the essential questions: What was happening in the US and in New Bedford during the 1800s? How has history and the environment shaped our community? How does art connect to our world and beyond? To learn the history of whaling and New Bedford, students visit the New Bedford Whaling Museum, The Rotch-Jones-Duff House & Garden Museum as well as the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center as off-campus experiential classrooms. Students research from exhibits, practice visual thinking strategies, read and learn from primary sources. Throughout the process, students are able to draw connections from the past to grow their understanding of present day New Bedford. This exhibition is a culmination of student research using primary sources to deepen the arts, literacy, and social studies curricula of OSS. Through historical inquiry and the power of imagination, the students at Our Sisters’ School tell, re-write, and amplify stories that forge an evocative connection to our community’s past.