Education

Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites offers exciting, relevant, educational, and hands-on programs for students — all linked to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s standards.

Bring your students to visit …

• The Gemeinhaus, the oldest building in Bethlehem
• The Burnside farm to churn butter and spin yarn
• The Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts to get creative and experience amazing exhibitions
• The former Bethlehem Steel site and blast furnaces

Can’t make it out to our historic sites? Invite us into your classroom with one of our Virtual Programs, for an historic encounter.

To book a program or to design an event that fits your needs, contact Museum Sites & Education Manager Keith Sten ksten@historicbethlehem.org 610-691-6055 

Reach out to us today. We look forward to working with you and your students.

EITC approved innovative educational programs

A Century at Burnside Plantation – 1748-1848 Burnside Plantation: Children engage in activities that incorporate innovative strategies and effectively motivate students with a broad range of learning styles.  A strong sense of place is evoked by utilizing period structures as exploration stations which include the farmhouse, the barn, the only operational high horsepower wheel in the United States, and the summer kitchen where children participate in preparing colonial foods. 

Handmade in the Eighteenth Century – Colonial Industrial Quarter: This program provides an active learning experience for students about colonial trades and industries with an emphasis on the science and technology of the period.  Students take home an object that they make. 

Discovering the Material World – Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts: This program provides a first museum experience for young students to learn about style and design in America.  For example, students learn how to look at a painting and the importance of understanding principals of mathematics in both landscapes and portraits. 

House on the Lecha – Moravian Museum of Bethlehem: The interactive program takes place at the 1741 Gemeinhaus, a National Historic Landmark and the oldest building in Bethlehem, where students learn in a neutral and informal way about community building and how they, in turn, may help sustain their own community’s culture.  This program promotes social connectedness by enabling students to form their own understanding of the interwoven relationship between the community of mid-18^th century Bethlehem and that in which we live today. 
  
Presence in the Past – 1741 Gemeinhaus: This is an interactive exploration of the 1741 Gemeinhaus (Moravian Museum) that utilizes historic documents, artifacts, and reproduction items.  Content is based on American Colonial history and local history as it relates to early Bethlehem residents.  

Steel Way of Life – Site of Former Bethlehem Steel Corporation: This learning experience brings students to the actual Bethlehem Steel site where guides, dressed as typical steelworkers including hard hats, lead the participants through the development of the corporation from its beginnings in the mid-1800s, rise to become America’s second-largest steel producer and then its demise at the dawn of the 21st century.  Students handle and examine iron ore and limestone, learn about the science of steelmaking and how industrial technologies have shaped our history, and form a connection between science and the day-to-day life in the plant.     

America’s First Industries- Along the Monocacy Creek: Students will discover the physics, chemistry, and engineering principles used at the Colonial Industrial Quarter through hands-on exploration and observation. 

Remote learning opportunities

In addition to on-site school tours at our museums and sites, HBMS offers remote learning opportunities that can be completed entirely remotely or complement an in-person visit!

Century at Burnside

This virtual learning program allows students to discover various aspects of life on a colonial farm, from work in the house, to the building of a barn, to work-saving farming technology, and much more! Students will explore various topics through video lessons, safely modified hands-on activities, and many other interactive elements.

• Aligns with PA Common Core standards for Grades 2-5
• Integrates academic standards for STEM education themes and concepts
• Learn about life on a colonial farm – work in the house, building of a barn, farming technology, and more!
• Video lessons with a costumed museum educator
• Safely modified hands-on activities
• 5-6 hours of classroom material to offer flexible learning opportunities
• Complements in-person Century at Burnside programming
• Cost is $7 per student

Voices of America: The Bethlehem Steel Story

Students are guided from early industry in Bethlehem through the closure and revitalization of the Bethlehem Steel site, as they learn about the impact of the steel industry on local, national, and international scale with this distance learning digital resource. This resource offered by Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites and the National Museum of Industrial History allows classrooms to discover local industries throughout Bethlehem’s history and learn how those industries, such as Bethlehem Steel, helped the city become an important industrial community. Expand your classroom’s learning experience by adding on one of our interactive video workshop options to learn more from a museum expert.

• Aligns with PA Common Core standards for Grades 3-5
• STEM aligned activities allow students to better understand science and technology principles
• Learn about 20th-century giant, Bethlehem Steel, and the impact of the steel industry on Bethlehem and the nation
• Partnered with National Museum of Industrial History to create an in-depth learning experience
• Safely modified hands-on activities