WARWICK – The Warwick-based Steamship Historical Society of America has launched an interactive website called STEAMing Into the Future, sharing the group’s archives online.
The organization’s new site at www.shiphistory.org looks to broaden students’ perspective of this time in history and its connection with relevant subjects, namely science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM), said Matthew Schulte, the society’s executive director.
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The nonprofit was assisted by grants from the National Maritime Heritage Grant Program and the Heritage Harbor Foundation. Schulte said the website project on the U.S. transition from sail to steam in the early 19th century was a long time in the making.
“We’ve been working for several years now to create a resource to educate students about this critical period in American history while promoting the subjects of [STEAM],” Schulte said in a press release. “We’re excited that lesson plans are already in use in New England schools and that this interactive experience is on a student-friendly platform.”
The site includes full lesson plans. Schools in East Greenwich, North Providence, Easton, Mass., Sandwich, Mass., and Pensacola, Fla., plan to use the website in curriculum, according to an SSHSA press release.
Beginning in 1807, the first commercially viable American steam engines were powering ships, transforming shipping, commerce and travel, and impacting immigration, trade and leisure.
The society won a grant from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities five years ago, to bring in teachers and educational consultants to select artifacts and documents from its collections and provide feedback regarding what was best aligned with 11th- and 12th-grade curricula.
Susan Shalhoub is a PBN contributing writer.
