Discovering Discovery

In The Ascent of Man, Jacob Bronowski places the origins of the Industrial Revolution not in university classrooms, but in the waterworks of the canals and mills. Here, practical men unleashed nature's power. Men like Eli Whitney, learned by experience and experiment. The Mill River powered the Armory that would become the first modern American factory and it educated Whitney and his Millwrights. It inaugurated an American legacy of independent self-guided discovery that is called Yankee Ingenuity.

The Water Learning Lab

On July 4th, 1993, the Eli Whitney Museum in partnership with the South Central Regional Water Authority, the National Science Foundation and nearly a dozen corporate friends renewed the teaching legacy of this site. A few yards from the waters that Whitney harnessed nearly two hundred years ago, these partners opened a unique learning environment. An outdoor experiment area which engages, a new generation, in the fundamental engineering experiences of the stream and sandbox. The Lab adapts the traditional activities of messing about for the standards of control and safety of our cautious era. It is a shared resource for the region, and a model for schools and communities across the nation.

Programs

Teachers

The Museum and the Regional Water Authority's Whitney Water Center train teachers in using water as a medium of instruction.The series awards Continuing Education Credits.

Classrooms

The site hosts daily workshops for classrooms in Fall and Spring and Summer learning workshops for Day Camps.

Natural Mechanics

The Museum's learning laboratory, the Whitney Workshop, offers support to children with a passion for making things and impatience with the reading and writing tasks of the classroom. Children who demonstrate unique gifts for problem solving will be given opportunities for advanced work.

Community

The Lab is open to community visitors and offers demonstrations and workshops.

The Water Table