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One Courthouse Square
Inverness, FL
34450
Museum Hours
M-F 10am - 4pm
352-341-6429
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Our key function is to make Social Studies relevant… to provide relevant links…access learning…performance tasks…and teach students how to read the world. School visits have a lasting impact, offering a distinctive opportunity to learn from objects. “Pupils learn much more clearly and rapidly by contact with the objects about which they study.”
---A. C. Parker, 1935.
The Old Courthouse Heritage Museum staff provides performance task opportunities for students; experiences in the areas of Social Sciences within their community, taking relevance beyond the classroom. By being a part of the team, we provide the life connection to Social Studies.
Tours for 4th graders of the Old Courthouse Heritage Museum consist of three stations. The classes are divided into three groups to tour the Museum. They learn about Florida and Citrus County history during the gallery tours; preservation and primary/secondary source documents, with a hands-on activity as well as a visit to the vault to see the actual documents during their visit to the Archive Library; architecture (various math reinforcements are presented at this station) during their walk around the outside of the building; and visit the courtroom to learn of the changes during the rehabilitation of the building. The full tour is important for a well-rounded lesson on history and preservation.
The purpose of the hands-on activities and the importance of the actual documents and artifacts brings relevance to the experience. Students discover the secrets of Citrus County’s past as tour guides present the facts and folklore of the region in an active and creative manner for classes of all ages.
We provide students with relevance in the community, in turn giving them an understanding, anchored in the Standards, of Florida's evolution as a state and its role in the nation in order that they might better understand their relationship within the community. The Old Courthouse Heritage Museum educational programs fit Florida Sunshine State Standards and Grade Level Expectations. The Museum is proud to partner with teachers to provide informative, creative, and enjoyable programs for students of all ages.
Activities for high school classes, in particular, are built around the official records and archives. These classes have been studying law and/or civics and the teachers have indicated that this is an area of interest to them. Without the official records, we cannot provide a meaningful presentation of history.
Here are some of the comments from teachers as written on the
Tour Evaluation forms received:
“Wonderful activity. We cannot let history die. Thank you!”
“Very informative and friendly and enthusiastic (Contagious for the kids)”– In reference to tour guides/docents.
“They were fascinated.” In reference to archive/vault activity.
“They love the vault.”
“A well organized tour.”
“Great lectures and hands-on activities.”
“My 4th grade students, chaperones, and I enjoyed and were enlightened by the knowledge received on our recent visit to the museum.”
“The children really enjoy the tour. It is a very informative and worthwhile field trip. “I would enjoy bringing my class every year.”
“My class is finally learning that Social Studies aren’t boring.”
“We just finished studying about early Florida—so it was exciting when my students remembered or noticed something we already study.”
“My students and I enjoyed the activity in the Archive vault the most.”
Traveling Resource Trunks:
The Old Courthouse Heritage Museum makes available at no charge seven traveling resource trunks for teachers to check out during the school year. An extension of the museum experience, these trunks bring resources to the classroom and include lesson plans, activities, transparency, handouts already copied for students, historic photographs, replicated pre-historic tools, timelines, videos and much, much more. Subject areas include the following:
1) Florida Report Resources
2) Archaeology and Native American History – Prehistoric Period
3) Archaeology and Native American – Historic Period
4) Archives, teaching with primary and secondary source documents
5) Folklife & Folklore
6) Architecture
7) African American History
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