Education

Battleship Education

Education aboard the Battleship New Jersey opens the door to real, hands-on learning. Students don’t just hear about history — they walk through it. Whether you’re planning an in-person field trip, exploring virtual programs, or bringing a Battleship educator to your classroom, these experiences help connect lessons in history, science, and social studies to a living piece of America’s story.

From kindergarten through college and beyond, the Battleship offers age-appropriate tours, activities, and resources that spark curiosity, build understanding, and make learning memorable. It’s an opportunity for students to climb aboard, explore a world of innovation and teamwork, and see history from a perspective they can’t get anywhere else.

Educational Opportunities

If you’re interested in learning more about the Battleship’s Educational Opportunities, reach out to Education@battleshipnewjersey.org.

Group Tours

Groups of all ages and sizes find the Battleship tours informative, interactive and above all else, entertaining!

The Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial is an educational and inspiring venue for students, scouts, reunions, or senior groups to visit and garner a greater appreciation for those who have served and those that now serve our nation.

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Outreach Programs

The Battleship New Jersey’s Education Outreach Program brings a piece of the ship’s history to your classroom. Students will be engaged and entertained while studying artifacts, primary source documents, and other hands-on activities. Teachers may choose from cross-curricular classes which encompass math, science, history, art, social studies, technology, and language arts and are aligned with state core curriculum standards.

On Board Classes

Onboard Classes

Your students will have the educational opportunity to take battleship classes in one of several subject areas on board the New Jersey. Taught by certified teachers and meeting national and state curriculum standards, these battleship classes allow children to experience first-hand what they have learned in their textbooks. Our science/math classes are hands-on, encouraging students to experiment with the concepts they’ve learned, while our history/language arts classes involve handling artifacts and speaking to those who have experienced the era studied. For an additional $3 per student, minimum of 20 students, your visit on-board can include one or more educational classes.

Class Descriptions

Engineering a Battleship:

Can you do a better job designing a battleship than the men who designed USS New Jersey? Recommended for grades 6-12, look at the various parts that go into building a massive warship and examine the 3 primary components of a battleship: massive propulsion, impenetrable armor, and unrivaled firepower. Use this knowledge and mathematics to design your own battleship factoring in the problems that the designers of real ships faced.

Circuits and Energy Creation:

Electricity powers our lives but do you know how it works? Recommended for grades 4-8, this program consists of a tour of the ship including the ship’s previously off-limits engine room. This program contains 3 hands-on programs: make homemade batteries, creating circuits, and experimenting with how electricity can make a ship waste away in front of your eyes.

Finding Your Way:

The ship is a maze, can you find your way out? Recommended for grades 2-5, this program is intended for younger sailors and includes a tour of the ship, including spaces not normally on the tour route, as well as three hands-on components. Learn how to read blueprints of the ship to find out where you are on board, read a world map to look at where the ship went over the course of its five-decade career, and read charts to examine the local waterways the ship traveled while discussing hazards the crew needed to avoid.

Life at Sea:

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a sailor? Recommended for grades 1-5, this tour visits crew spaces from berthing, where you can try to fit in a sailor’s bed to the post office, to the ship’s hospital. Maybe your battle station will be in the Combat Engagement Center firing missiles, or maybe it will be on a repair party saving the ship from flooding. This tour has 2 hands-on components allowing participants to learn how ships float and compete in keeping their own designs afloat as well as a program on the role of Damage Control aboard.

High Water:

In December 1944 New Jersey faced an opponent just as deadly as the Axis but far more difficult to fight, Typhoon Cobra, which sunk three ships in her task force and damaged many more. Recommended for Grades 7-12, this program consists of a visit to the bridge, about 54 feet above the waterline, where waves broke overhead. The expansion joint can also be found here, which allowed the ship to twist and flex while the sea threw her around. Typhoon Cobra also caused the ship’s boats used to rescue sailors to be carried overboard. Learn how to use damage control techniques to stop flooding, use a barometer to predict the weather, and experiment with buoyancy to see how much weight a ship can take before it starts to sink. This program culminates in an analysis of interviews with sailors who survived the typhoon, including future President Gerald Ford, and looks at how other ships experienced the same event.

Distance Learning Programs

Did you know your students can “visit” Battleship New Jersey virtually? This interactive experience is supplemented by virtual demonstrations, oral history video clips, and artifacts which enhance the objectives of the lesson—your students will receive nearly the same experience within our Outreach Program via Zoom.

Traveling Trunk Program

World War II-era canvass sea bags are filled with educational resources, which can be utilized in your classroom for Battleship classes. Artifacts, primary source documents, and lesson plans for a two-week period are at your disposal and are organized around specific topics in the Battleship’s 60-year history. Teachers may both pick up and drop off the bag for a two-week period, or it may be shipped ground UPS for an additional fee. Bags include information on WWII, Korea/Cold War, Vietnam, and the Beirut Crisis.

Education Standards

Meets State Department of Education social studies standards...

The Battleship New Jersey’s Instructor’s Manual provides pre-and post-visit lesson plans-strategies to interest, involve, and motivate students so that they appreciate the Big J’s “Firepower for Freedom.”

On-ship exercises provide students with valuable insights into social studies with lessons that meet New Jersey’s, Pennsylvania’s and Delaware’s Department of Education standards.

Teacher seminars provide suggestions on how to use the Battleship as a cross-curricular tool. And battleship-based lesson plans can help teachers with strategies to:

Improve language skills with nautical terms and civilian synonyms.
Integrate science and mathematics into the curriculum.
Learn what it was like to be a member of a 3,000-member crew with real life examples of the importance of teamwork.

Earn Your Merit Badge

Due to the limited amount of time available, this is what will be covered:

Requirement 7.

Visit a radio installation (an amateur radio station, broadcast station, or public communications center, for example) approved in advance by your counselor. Discuss what types of equipment you saw in use, how it was used, what types of licenses are required to operate and maintain the equipment, and the purpose of the station.

Requirement 9.a 1-4 Amateur Radio

Radio Merit Badge typically starts at 0900 and will likely be completed not later than 1030, depending on the number of Scouts participating. Upon completion of requirement 7 and 9.a, our licensed radio amateur will sign off those 2 requirements on the Scouts’ Blue Card.

The remainder of the Badge requirements can be completed without the need for a licensed amateur radio operator assistance.

BB62 Radio Merit Badge