Nebraska fourth graders spend their academic year learning about the state, its history and culture. Some students have been fortunate enough to travel the state and see firsthand many of its unique landmarks and hear its remarkable stories. Others have not yet had the opportunity and may find it difficult to relate to the information they are presented in the classroom. The Nebraksa150 Celebration wanted to help make lessons about the state come alive for fourth graders by providing classrooms with informative and appealing learning materials.

Dr. Randy Bertolas, chair of the Department of History, Politics, and Geography at Wayne State College and coordinator for the Geographic Educators of Nebraska, created the Nebraska Atlas, a 56-page color workbook, and accompanying curriculum in 2014. The multidisciplinary workbook features information on Nebraska geography, Native American history, westward expansion, science, reading and writing. Math skills are also incorporated with lessons on coordinate grids and distance calculations.

The Nebraska 150 Celebration set out to provide copies of the Nebraska Atlas to every fourth grade classroom in the state so it could be utilized during the 2017-18 academic year and remain available for use for years to come.

Nebraska has many grand traditions. Perhaps one of the best is the annual fourth grade field trip to the Nebraska State Capitol. Unfortunately, more and more schools are faced with difficult fiscal realities and may not be able to afford this “extra” as part of their Nebraska Studies curriculum. While learning about historically and culturally relevant site in the classroom is wonderful, nothing can compare to having a full immersion experience.

In 2017, the Nebraska 150 Celebration wanted to ensure that as many fourth graders as possible had the opportunity to visit the State Capitol or one of 11 other iconic state landmarks and historically/culturally relevant sites. A partnership with the Nebraska Arts Council’s (NAC), the Nebraska Experience was modeled after the organization’s long-time School Bus for the Arts Grant Program. The Nebraska 150 Celebration underwrote the cost of school buses as well as admission fees to select historical landmarks, museums and other venues across the state.

Truckin’ Through Nebraska: A Mobile Children’s Museum was a state-of-the art, hands-on children’s museum experience created to commemorate 150 years of statehood in 2017. The intent of the museum was to provide a unique, entertaining and unforgettable learning experience to thousands of youth living in areas of the state without their own children’s museum. Our goal was to instill a sense of pride and wonder in Nebraska children and inspire them to make their own place in the future of the state.

An expandable tractor-trailer outfitted with tailor-made, hands-on learning exhibits toured the state for 26 weeks visiting 42 communities. Through play, interactivity and the latest technology, children and families learned about the state’s history and discovered some of the diverse stories that make Nebraska great.

The Mobile Children’s Museum was contained in a 53-foot, state-of-the-art, custom air-ride, double-expandable trailer specially designed and outfitted for traveling museum exhibits. The unit was ADA accessible and climate controlled. It featured GPS tracking and had an independent generator. The trailer was wrapped with a custom graphics. Additionally, two 13’x13’ outdoor tents and one 13’x26’ outdoor tent provided protection from the elements for our outdoor exhibits. The lease included a driver and fuel for duration of the tour.

The histories of the state of Nebraska and Union Pacific Railroad (UP) are inextricably linked. UP was founded in Omaha in 1862 with the signing of the Pacific Railroad Act by President Abraham Lincoln, five years before Nebraska became a state. UP was tasked with building tracks westward from the Missouri River while the Central Pacific Railroad of California began building tracks eastward from Sacramento. The two would meet in Promontory, Utah, completing the first transcontinental railroad in North America.

During the Nebraska 150 Express Whistle Stop Tour (NE150 Express), Nebraskans celebrated our railroad heritage in a distinctive way that harkened back to similar 19th century whistle stop tours. On Aug. 4, 2017, UP’s heritage equipment, led by the Streamliner E-9 locomotive, embarked on a three-day tour of the state, departing from Omaha and stopping for rallies in Columbus, North Platte, Ogallala, Sidney, Gering, Kearney and Grand Island. The Heritage Fleet is the last of Union Pacific’s famous streamliner and dome liner passenger trains of the high-speed diesel-electric era.