Immigration and expansion: Middle School students get a new view of Boston

For the seventh and eighth grade classes, there was no better way of kicking off their interdisciplinary units on immigration than visiting downtown Boston on December 15. The Middle School Program took them to the Museum of Science for an Omni Theater presentation of "Great Journey West" and to the Prudential Center's top-floor exhibition of immigration history in Boston.

Although at first it might not seem like either stop on the students' tour of Boston Tuesday had directly to do with immigration, one only needed to here them report on it to make the connections.



"Lewis and Clark mapped out what would be the future of our country," said Douglas DePaola '14. "After they mapped it out, that would bring more immigrants here."

"The Prudential [exhibit] showed us how people immigrated to Boston, and it showed us the view of the way people would come through to these parts," said Matthew Chipman '15.

Mike Tomaino '14 reflected that afternoon on his own family's journeys west from Europe. "I'm looking forward to seeing how people came to this country," he said. "My grandparents came from Italy, and i'm wondering how they came to be citizens."

Chipman said he enjoyed the whole day--from the Museum of Science to lunch to the afternoon skyline view of his city. "It was pretty fun, walking around the city with my friends," he said.

Of the view at the top of the Pru, DePaola added, "It was pretty cool. I'd never seen all of Boston like that before."