Update 3: Indy Day Trip

Many of you will remember that last month I blogged about a taking a field trip gone wrong with the sixth graders I taught during practicum.  Well, the Indiana State Museum got the opportunity to redeem itself in my memory as of yesterday!

Kyle and I went to Indy with my grandparents and cousin to visit the museum and, more specifically, to see the Titanic exhibit that has been there since September.  I was pretty excited because I didn't get the opportunity to see the exhibit when I was there the first time.  It was amazing!  There were so many neat artifacts available for us to see and everyone was given a "ticket" at the entrance that gave details of a passenger that we were to become while touring.  At the end of the exhibit, we could check a list of survivors to see if we lived or not.  Since I was a first class woman, I knew I had pretty good odds and I made it, of course.  Poor Grandpa died.  He did have a heroic quote on the wall of the exhibit, though, informing his "wife" to get in the lifeboat because it was her last chance of survival.  Such a great guy :)

We couldn't take any pictures from the Titanic exhibit, but we were able to get some from the rest of the museum.  Some are of questionable quality, though, because flash wasn't allowed.  Below is the reconstructed mouth of a mastodon.  They were able to build it using information from teeth and tusks and bones found in Indiana fields.  

Indian arrows!  These aren't the real thing, either, but are reconstructed to look like them.  There weren't any real Indian artifacts in the museum after 1990 because of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act that required federal agencies or institutions that receive federal funding (like, ahem, the Indiana State Museum) to return cultural items and remains to Native American tribes.  While I was sad that I didn't get to see any real artifacts from Native Americans, I'm glad they were returned.  I'm sort of a little obsessed with respecting Native American culture, so that's okay.

This is a real-life dentist chair from several decades ago.  My grandma maintained that this is why she was afraid to go to the dentist when she was young!

 This Shirley Temple doll was in the culture exhibit from the thirties and was owned by a little girl from Monroe, Indiana.  Small world...my grandpa knew the doll's owner!

And my personal favorite...everyone thinks Portland is a measly no-man's-land, but check out what Elwood Haynes did for the community!  PS--he was so awesome that we named an elementary school after him :)

All in all, a lot more fun than when I went during the field trip.  Afterwards, we went to Cracker Barrel and had some delicious food.  We came home exhausted!  It was a lot of walking, a lot of reading, a lot of driving, and a lot of eating!