Panama Canal Museum

Share our history with a Panama Canal Museum in a Trunk, an outreach program to disseminate information about the Panama Canal to schools throughout the nation. Donations from individuals, Zonian families, high school reunion classes, and organizations, and also grants, make this possible.

Museum in a Trunk

The purpose of the Panama Canal Museum in a Trunk is to enable teachers to augment their lesson plans with teaching tools in order to make an in-depth study of the Panama Canal available to their students. The Trunk is available through the Media Center in the school’s central district office. 

The contents of a Panama Canal Museum in a Trunk include:

Notebook filled with Lesson Plans and Classroom Activities
PowerPoint Lectures on CD

The Panama Canal Lessons:

Lesson Plan 1: The History of the Panama Canal
Lesson Plan 2: The People and Places of Panama
Lesson Plan 3: The Construction of the Panama Canal

Maps:

National Geographic - Panama Canal
Panama Canal
Laminated map of the canal locks

DVDs:

A Man, A Plan, A Canal: Panama, by David McCullough (NOVA)
The Diggers, by Roman J. Foster (PBS)

CD:

Music of Panama
Power Point Presentations and Scripts

Books:

Building the Canal by Russell Roberts
The Building of the Panama Canal in Historical Photographs, by Ulrich Keller
How the Toucan Got His Large Beak, by Lauren E. Coffey
Mola:  Cuna Life Stories and Art, by Maricel E. Presilla
The Panama Canal, Cobblestone Magazine Discover American History
Panama Canal Reviews / Las Revisiones del Canal de Panamá magazine in English and Spanish / el inglés y versiones españolas
The Path Between the Seas, by David McCullough
Portrait of the Panama Canal from Construction to the 21st Century, by William Friar
West Indian Labor on the Panama Canal, by Roman J. Foster

Artifacts:

Molas 2006 calendar showing the American influence on the craft of reverse appliqué by the Kuna Indians of Panama.
Mola sample
Centennial Commemorative Coin, Founding of the Republic of Panama and the Panama Canal Treatu 1903-2003
Railroad rail to show railroad construction in the Panama Canal
Teddy Bear with brief history of Theodore Roosevelt

Teaching about the Panama Canal

Grade Levels: 4-5, 6-8, 9-12
General Objectives: Grades 4-5, 6-8, 9-12
State Standards: Grades 4-5, 6-8, 9-12
Tools for Teachers and Students: Grades 4-5, 6-8, 9-12
Timeline
Vocabulary: Grades 4-5, 6-8, 9-12
Activities: Grades 4-5, 6-8, 9-12
Extensions: Grades 4-5, 6-8, 9-12

Sponsor a Trunk

Bringing the history of the Panama Canal to our schools one trunk at a time. Download a Donation Form