As part of their study of Long Island Geography, the 4th grade at the Waldorf School of Garden City recently visited the Queens Museum of Art where they participated in the museum’s educational program called “Urban, Suburban, Rural”.

“The panorama model gave the children an opportunity to see New York City as a whole and then to see how differently each part is settled and built-up,” remarked class teacher Miss Kelly Beekman. “Since Brooklyn and Queens are the western part of Long Island, we can learn more about where we live.”

Built by Robert Moses for the 1964 World’s Fair, the panorama is a 9,335 square foot architectural model that includes every single building constructed in all five boroughs of New York City before 1992; that is a total of 895,000 individual structures!

“The children became very excited when they found landmarks and buildings they knew or had recently visited,” said Miss Beekman.

The class also saw “A Watershed Moment: The Relief Map of the New York City Water Supply System”. A magnificent scale model of the New York City watershed, this large relief map traces the City’s water supply system from the outermost, upstream tributaries of the Delaware River to sea level at the Nassau County line. The model identifies the various aqueducts, water shafts and drainage basins that feed the City’s water supply.

“The students were amazed to see how big the pipes were and wondered how much water traveled through them each day,” remarked Miss Beekman.

Afterwards, the students took part in a studio activity where they used cardboard boxes and colored paper to create their own scale models of a city block.

“Simply put, the Panorama and the Watershed models of New York are both pretty extremely unique,” said Miss Beekman. “This was a great experience and the class talked about it all the way home. I recommend it to children and adults interested in learning more about our region!”

Despite the frigid temperatures that day, the class also walked around Flushing Meadows Corona Park and talked about the 1939-1940 and 1964-1965 World’s Fairs.

Photos courtesy of Miss Kelly Beekman.

For more information about the Panorama at the Queens Museum of Art, click here.