A Unique Adventure: The Kenosha Civil War Museum Field Trip

Post date: Oct 16, 2017 7:42:17 PM

By: Elizabeth Briggs, Entertainment Editor

Posted October 16th, 2017

On October 3rd and 4th, sophomores in the American Studies I class boarded buses to Kenosha in order to spend the day at the Kenosha Civil War Museum. They started off the trip with exploring the museum for some information on their assigned projects. The students later split up into groups and looked at all the different exhibits. After they had some time to look through the exhibits, they all met up to watch the screening of a 360 degree movie on the Civil War. The movie was about 10 minutes long and included very personal perspectives on how the Civil War influenced people at the time. It made history seem much more real and made the stories you read connect to actual people. After viewing the movie, students were given more time to look at the exhibits, and then joined together for one last part of the trip. This part was a presentation made by Mr. Acker on the many conditions soldiers had to experience during the war. He brought along many props that he uses for reenactments that made the whole time very interesting. Students were given the chance to try and assemble themselves into lines similar to what those in the war might have done. This turned out to be quite difficult because we were inexperienced and had never done anything like it before, which we were told was also a problem during the war. Lastly, students came together again to eat lunches and boarded the buses again to head back to school.

This trip was a unique experience compared to other museums because it was very hands-on and told history from a different perspective. Students enjoyed it because it was much more real than other museums they had been to in the past. Overall, the field trip was a success.