Workers on the Line

Watch a short video of our Workers on the Line program.

Grades 4-12

Description:

During the Industrial Revolution, the new factory system changed the nature of work and the relationships between workers and management. In this high-energy program, students examine how workers fought, and continue to fight, for their rights in a corporate system.

Students

  • Immerse themselves in printing “cloth” on an assembly line and experience dramatic fluctuations in work conditions. 
  • Join a union, the “Teenage Workers of the World,” to gain power in the corporate workplace and engage in collective bargaining with mill management. 
  • Investigate child labor in the U.S. and abroad, using Visual Thinking Strategies with historic and modern photographs, to discover how young workers are addressing injustices and securing their rights. 
  • Explore the Boott Cotton Mills Museum and boardinghouse to gather information to form and support an opinion about work and life in a mill city.

We have many resources to help prepare your students for their visit and extend learning afterwards. 

All of our programs have been reviewed to ensure their relevance to state and national standards.

Program details:

  • Field Trip Fee: $225 per group
  • Group Size: Up to 30 students per group.
    • Chaperones: We require a minimum of two (2) adults per group – with a ratio of one (1) adult for every ten (10) students.
    • Each group should include a teacher, one or two chaperones, plus any additional staff (aides, nurses, etc) your group requires.
    • Maximum of six (6) adults per group.

Plan your visit now.

Programs can be reserved by calling us at 978-970-5080 to make a reservation for your class.

Partnership

The Tsongas Industrial History Center is an education partnership between the University of Massachusetts Lowell School of Education and the National Park Service at Lowell National Historical Park.

  • UMass Lowell
  • National Park Service