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Pop-up museum provides lessons in history and science

Eric cravey
Posted 12/7/16

ORANGE PARK – Science and history recently converged in a portable classroom on the campus of Orange Park Junior High with a tour stop from a pop-up museum called “The Science of …

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Pop-up museum provides lessons in history and science


Posted

ORANGE PARK – Science and history recently converged in a portable classroom on the campus of Orange Park Junior High with a tour stop from a pop-up museum called “The Science of Shipwrecks.”

A joint project between the Key West based-Mel Fisher Maritime Museum and the State of Florida Department of State’s Division of Historical Resources, the museum gives students a glimpse into the shipwreck of the Santa Clara, a Spanish merchant ship that crashed into a coral reef in 1564 due to human error.

OPJH history and social studies teacher Cindy Cheatwood said the museum’s stop in Clay County began back in February when the school applied to the state for the grant that would pay for its tour stop here. Reasons for bringing the educational exhibit to the school are meant to start a conversation of sorts.

“When I bring my civics kids in, I explain to them that not only is this about the history of Florida and North America, but it’s also about what role citizens had in bringing this here,” she said.

Cheatwood said part of the reason the junior high applied for the grant is “to try to spark a little interest in marine archaeology or archaeology, in general.”

From a practical standpoint, the display panels explain how the Santa Clara sank after hitting a coral reef in five meters of water on the southwestern edge of the Little Bahamas Bank, approximately 37 kilometers north-northwest of West End, Grand Bahamas Island. But the displays also show “the how” in which an archaeologist operates underwater to find such a lost treasure. One panel, for example, shows how scientists used a grid system to search for artifacts, which Cheatwood said, are fascinating how well they were preserved underwater some five centuries.

“If you can imagine being underwater for 500 years, you know those vials are still round. It’s amazing and when I talk to my students about this, I say, ‘You’re going on this trip, what are you bringing with you. What are the values of the things that you bring? …They get to kind of put that in their heads – I only get to carry so much. A typical sailor wouldn’t have had much room, so the things that you find are really interesting,” Cheatwood said.

Students from W.E. Cherry and Grove Park Elementary schools walked to the Gano Avenue campus to visit the museum. However, before they entered the portable, they had a chance to learn about Mel Fisher and how his quest all began by watching a biography on the modern-day explorer “so they could kind of see where he got his interest and the passion. I mean you really had to have a passion to pursue it the way he did relentlessly would be a good word for it.”

Students, depending on their grade levels, got to take part in a scavenger hunt inside the pop-up museum. They could read the displays and their scavenger hunt outlines and then find the objects in the classroom.

“It’s just crazy how so many artifacts were found and they were in kind of pristine condition that they were able to identify what they found and that science is so advanced that they can do that. It kind of shows you that they had their own versions of technology as well,” said Lana Peyton of Middleburg, an OPJH eighth grade student who volunteered Dec. 4 to guide members of the community to the portable classroom much like a big-city museum docent.

Accompanying Peyton was fellow eighth grade classmate Camila Bautista, also of Middleburg. Bautista paid special attention to the technology used in 1564.

“I found it interesting the way they preserved weapons or technology that they found there and I found it interesting the way that they did it and each weapon and technology they have a story to tell and I think they’re telling it by preserving it and I just found it really cool.”

Cheatwood said having the pop-up museum in Clay County was an honor. She also said this traveling display is a great example of how to capture history and present it in such a succinct, professional manner.

“Just the fact that Mel Fisher’s name is on this gives it a certain kind of credential. The historians who have put all the work into documenting this, this is a lesson in how you do it right. So, if you want to have a project and you think it’s going to have historical merit, you’re going to have look for good examples and this is very well done,” Cheatwood said.

Although Fisher is probably best known for his search for the fabled Spanish galleon Atocha, he first began searching for sunken treasure in 1962 when he met a man named Kip Wagner. Ill-equipped and his crew not able to devote full-time to the project, Wagner invited Fisher to join him on a 50-50 basis in search for the 10 shipwrecks of the 1715 Spanish Plate Fleet that was lost in a hurricane off Florida’s east coast.

In 1980, Fisher was thrust on to the international stage as a treasure hunter when he discovered more than $20 million worth of gold and other riches fom the Santa Margarita, a sister ship of the Atocha that was lost in the same storm of 1622. He quickly learned that finding treasures and artifacts is only the beginning – they must be conserved, studied, restored, recorded, and shared or exhibited with the world.

“I feel honored that the people who made the museum wanted our school to have it here,” said Ryley Barnett, OPJH eighth grader.