Document Based Questions

Our many student visitors are working with a system called Document Based Questions or DBQs. This is a major focus in schools today. Students must be adept at analyzing and synthesizing the information provided in documents. A great way to comply is to see real records. The premise is not to depend on someone else's interpretation of a document. They are taught “read it yourself and draw your own conclusions.”

A logical place to see and experience examples are with a hands on visit to historic houses — like our Gomez Mill House.

When our students visit, we provide each grade level with DBQs to experience here and copies for teachers to take back to school with them.

We would like more historic documents pertaining to Mill House to share with our young (and older) visitors.

We take our mission To Preserve and To Educate very seriously. Ellen Healy, Education Assistant, pre-visits the schools and then meets the buses of the fourth grade visitors to the Gomez Mill House. After seeing the new video, the classes visit Dard Hunter’s Mill, and return to the Visitor’s Center and hand make paper. Then our docents take them through the house.

Our programming also focuses on our young people. One popular program is The Archaeological Dig for Children by our archaeologist Stuart Tray. Before the children dig, Stu digs the holes and salts them with artifacts of the colonial period. This is done to make sure the area is properly and professionally searched. Tray explains to the children what they might find, the proper use of the tools — the brushes, shovels and sifters — and then supervises the dig. At the end of the day, Mr. Tray goes over each treasure and explains how by fitting together the objects found, the lives of the people who lived at Mill House could be studied. The staff then buys back the artifacts with lollipops and makes certain that everyone has a good time.

And the children learned how to make a Shofar and decorate a Sukkah, had a Purim party, and learned about Channukah. Mom and Dad learned of the Jewish explorers and settlers, cooking three hundred years ago, decorating for the holidays, and special programs for each of the five owner occupants.

Our good friends, International Paper Company, taught papermaking in front of the mill. For Orange County Day and Marlboro Day, we made a number of new friends.

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