Education & Outreach

The Presidio Museum offers educational opportunities for professional educators, homeschoolers, and family groups.  

Please see our General Rules for prices and also our Covid-19 Safety Policies. Read on to learn more about our offerings.

Programs below are listed from 100% live to 100% virtual.

Program 1: Morning Muster

An On-Site Live Field Trip

TWO HOUR VISIT 
Minimum of 8 participants. Capped at 30 participants (including adults) 

A Presidio Museum Outreach Specialist will make an appointment with your group for either an in-person visit (masked) or a Zoom visit to give a 45 minute age-appropriate presentation about the Presidio Museum and its history. This field trip supports Common Core curriculum for Arizona 3rd and 4th graders although other age groups may attend with advance planning.

Following that appointment, your group will schedule an on-site visit.  You will arrive and be given a brief recap of the history of the Presidio here in Tucson. Then your group will be broken into smaller groups and rotate through 4-6 stations that may include the following (based on volunteer and staff availability): 

  • Children’s chores of early Tucson settlers     
  • Tinsmithing activity and blacksmithing demo     
  • Games children played before screens
  • The life of a Presidio soldier
  • Calligraphy

Program Contact Jean Baxter, Education Director: tbaxter559@aol.com

Program 2: History in the Field

Themed On-Site Live Field Trips

TWO HOUR VISIT

Minimum of 8 participants. Capped at 30 participants (including adults)

Your group will schedule an on-site visit with a Presidio Outreach Specialist for a themed visit.  Theme options include:  

Theme A: Archaeology

Ages restricted to 9 and up.

Your group will start with a visit to the Museum’s excavated Early Agricultural period pit house. Then you will identify and learn about specific artifacts found in recent archaeological excavations of downtown Tucson. You will be provided field mapping supplies and must document what you have found, and figure out what was going on in that area. You will share your conclusions with the group. 

Excavation: An excavation activity in our dig site may be included for groups of 10 or fewer depending on staff and volunteer availability.

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Theme B: Early Peoples

Your group will time travel back to 400 C.E. to experience the daily life of the Hohokam. You will visit an excavated Early Agricultural period pit house and may engage in the following activities: using an atl-atl, using an early drill, and making a utilitarian basket or pot.

Theme c: How Did They Make That?

Cochineal bugs make this “scale” on prickly pear pads.
The bugs are collected and ground up to make a red dye
still used today in many of our products.

What did the people in 1775 (Indigenous and Spanish) use to build their homes and make their tools? Your group will learn about the Sonoran environment and how it affects the world we live in.  Activities will focus on sustainable living practices that are being re-learned today and may include: 

  • Making adobe bricks
  • Water harvesting 
  • Cochineal use and harvesting
  • Native gardening techniques 
  • Learn to harvest and use nopales (prickly pear).  

Program Contact: Ginger Thompson,
Family Programming and Educational Outreach Manager, gingert@TucsonPresidio.com.

Program 3: Portable Presidio

Field Trip Format – At YOUR Site

Registration open now for 2021.  Email gingert@TucsonPresidio.com for questions.

TWO HOUR VISIT TO YOUR SITE

Minimum of 12 participants. Capped at 40 participants (including adults).

This is similar to the Morning Muster program above but we come to you. You will make two appointments with a Presidio Museum Outreach Specialist. The first will be either an in-person visit (masked) or a Zoom visit to give a 45 minute age-appropriate presentation about the Presidio Museum and its history.  

For your second appointment two Presidio Education Specialists will visit you at your site and bring a “field trip in a box”.  You must provide an open air site (i.e. playground).  Then your group will be broken into smaller groups and rotate through 4 stations that may include the following:

  • Children’s chores of early Tucson settlers  
  • Tinsmithing
  • Games children played before screens
  • Presidio soldier drills
  • Adobe bricks (this is messy, wear appropriate clothing) 
  • Gardening – Three Sisters activity
  • Calligraphy
  • Old and New World Foods 

Only two Presidio staff members will be on-site. Activity stations must be supported by school staff or parents. Tables and chairs must be supplied by school or homeschool. Presidio staff will need time to set-up and prep their parent/teacher helpers.    

Program 4: Museum in a Box

Week long trunk check-out with Zoom support only.
(No live interaction.)

Registration open now for Spring 2021.  Email gingert@TucsonPresidio.com for questions or to register.

FEE FOR TRUNK: $15 per day or $60 a week (Monday-Friday)      

Theme 1: Historic Hats of Arizona 

A “Historic Hats” trunk will be delivered to your site. You will make a zoom appointment with a Presidio Museum Outreach Specialist who will present “Historic Hats of Arizona” to your group with live Q and A time.  Then your group will identify the hats in the trunk and do further investigation on the individual who would have worn that hat.  Your group will learn about the individuals from four different time periods:

  • Early peoples  (Before 1500’s)
  • Spanish Period (1500’s – 1821)
  • Mexican Period )1821 – 1854)
  • American Period (1854-present)

And will learn about the roles of

  • Women
  • Military
  • Workers and merchants of various ethnicities
  • Religious individuals

Additional activities and curriculum is also provided in the trunk.

Theme 2: A Day in the Life of a Presidio Inhabitant 

You will start with a pre-scheduled Zoom presentation and live Q and A time with a Presidio Museum Outreach Specialist then a trunk will be delivered to your site. The trunk will have a teacher packet, materials, and supplies for the registered number of children. Provided directions will help a teacher/parents to run an activity with their participants. Activities may include:

  • Basket making activity
  • Calligraphy, a literacy lesson
  • Tinsmithing Mexican craft
  • Art with natural materials of the desert

Program 5: Virtual Presidio

45-60 MINUTE ONLINE PRESENTATION WITH ACTIVITY SHEETS
Capped at 30 participants (including adults) per zoom call.
$50 for first presentation, $30 for any additional presentation at the same school in the same school year.

Registration open now for Spring 2021.  Email gingert@TucsonPresidio.com for questions.

    Questions?

    Contact Ginger Thompson,
    Family Programming and Educational Outreach Manager, gingert@TucsonPresidio.com.