Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World

Online Site Support Notebook: Programs for Younger Audiences

www.benfranklin300.org/essayContest.htm


Who is your modern day Benjamin Franklin? This was the question answered by thousands of students across the Philadelphia region who participated in the Benjamin Franklin Essay Contest presented by the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary, the National Constitution Center, and the "News In Education" program of
The Philadelphia Inquirer. The winning students were honored in a ceremony at the National Constitution Center on April 11, 2006.

• Other essay topics: "What Would Benjamin Franklin Like and Dislike About the World Today?" (Would he have taken to PCs, the Internet, Blackberrys?) What role might he play in government today?
• Sponsor an invention contest with winners receiving Benjamin Franklin t-shirts, etc., judges from local colleges, high schools.

www.ushistory.org/franklin/fun/index.htm


Do simple experiments. The web site "Fun with Franklin" offers experiments with bottle pipes, a lemon battery, letterpress stamps, and a thermometer. Also games related to Franklin.

• Plan a public program for students in the library presented by a librarian or teacher showing how to use primary sources in historical research.
• Teen poetry writing and public readings on themes related to the exhibit.
• Partner with a local children's museum on programs about Benjamin Franklin.
• Plan a young people's chautauqua focusing on personalities, events, music, costume and other aspects of the era, with speakers impersonating public figures, simple craft activities, dancing and acting (this could be a series of programs throughout the exhibition period).
• Include a title for young people in the Benjamin Franklin "One Book, One Community" series.
• Family activity night at the library with stories and songs about Benjamin Franklin and the American Revolution.