History and the Old Mill
- Grades: K-6
- Duration: 2 hours
- Offered: Spring and Fall
Experience how grain and other seeds are hand-ground into flour and meal using a mortar and pestle, and saddlestone. Through simple demonstrations of a waterwheel and a gear model, learn how the power of the Black River does the same job more easily and faster. Tour the Cooper Gristmill and see this energy in action as it produces flour at the rate of several hundred pounds per hour.
Miller’s Pancake
- Grades: Pre K-1
- Duration: 1.5 hours
- Offered: Spring and Fall
Experience the process of creating a perfect golden brown pancake. Begin by learning where flour comes from and watch as we make that breakfast food we enjoy so much. Hear and feel the rumble of the millstones. Touch the seeds before they are ground and then after they become flour or meal. This program is adapted from Eric Carle’s book, Pancakes, Pancakes!
Family Life in Milltown
- Grades: 1-6
- Duration: 2 hours
- Offered: Spring and Fall
In this interactive program, the concept of community is developed using Milltown, which once included homes, mills, a store, and a school. Discover family life in this 1880s community, while engaging in daily family activities of yesteryear. Teachers choose four of the following activities for the students to participate in: sawing wood, washing clothes, carding wool, spinning yarn, sewing with a treadle sewing machine, purchasing items at an 1880s general store, and learning about an 1880s postal system.
Simple Machines
- Grades: 3-8
- Duration: 2 hours
- Offered: Spring and Fall
Combine science, math, and history techniques to learn how the six simple machines make everyday life easier. Students apply hands-on activities to discover how these machines help to operate the mill’s equipment. They experience how to lift heavy weights with ease by using pulleys and levers. Watch as one man raises a 2,000-pound millstone with the assistance of simple machines.
Industrial Revolution
- Grades: 9-12
- Duration: 2 hours
- Offered: Spring and Fall
Learn how the advancements in gristmills impacted life in the 1880s through technology, construction, and production (of flour). Experience the use of waterpower to operate Oliver Evans’ fully automatic factory as the water wheel runs most of the machinery inside. Hear about the development of millstones, combining simple machines, and the various types of water wheels and water power.
For School Program Registration, see our Contact page.
