Seventh-Graders Visit the Boston Museum of Fine Arts & Mapparium

The pouring rain did not dampen the spirits of the 7th graders who traveled to the Museum of Fine Arts and the Mary Baker Eddy Library on Friday, April 3rd. Over the past trimester, the students’ art, language arts, world language and math teachers have tailored their curricula to the antiquities displayed at the MFA.Prior to the trip, each child researched the MFA’s website and selected a particular piece of art. Once there, they needed to locate the piece and write their first-hand impressions of it. They also had to identify their favorite piece in the museum’s collection and explain why they liked it.

 The Mapparium at the Mary Baker Eddy Library is a three story, stained-glass globe of the world as it was in 1935. Brilliant color and lights track global shifts over the past century, and the brief audio program includes inspiring quotes from Ghandi, Winston Churchill, Eleanor Roosevelt and Nelson Mandela. Students were enthralled by the fountain in the Hall of Ideas, where great thoughts of famous people throughout the ages – Plato, Aristotle, Maya Angelou—literally bubble up from the fountain, across the floor, and up the marble walls.

This exciting trip was the result of a grant written by Marguerite Lawler-Rohner and Deb Casey, and was funded by CEEF in Fall 2008.