Lessons About Maya Arrive on Wheels

Without leaving their playground, sixth-graders at Northridge Middle School are being transported to the jungle of eastern Mexico.

Their voyage to the ancient Mayan city of Palenque this week has been possible because of a 48-foot-long custom-built learning center stationed on school grounds.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Maya Mobile, which rolled onto campus Monday, is a hands-on learning tool that allows students to explore the culture and history of the Maya, who built spectacular cities in Mexico and Central America about 1,000 to 1,500 years ago.

Funded by the Maxwell H. Gluck Foundation and operated in conjunction with the Los Angeles Unified School District, the $1.2-million Maya Mobile resembles an archeological site inside a religious temple.

Inside the traveling classroom, the walls are lined with simulated tufa stone. Canvas awnings, a humming generator and strings of lights create the ambience of a scientific encampment.

“The kids are just jazzed by this,” said Northridge Principal Robert Kinsella. “It’s really fascinating.”

The three-part program began weeks ago when a museum instructor introduced students to the Maya with visits to their classrooms. After visiting the Maya Mobile, the students will go view related artifacts in the museum’s collection.

Museum instructors Susie Woo and Ankarino Lara focused their lesson Wednesday on Mayan hieroglyphics, using the painted walls of the Maya Mobile and a special codex of Mayan symbols as their guides. After a short film, the students painted their own symbols on terra cotta tiles, which will be fired in a museum kiln and returned to them.

“There’s not a lot of funding for art anymore, so the students are always really excited to be here,” Lara said. “They enjoy the program and the lessons stay with them because they get to participate in a hands-on way.”

Lucia Aguilar, 11, who was born in Guatemala, said the Maya Mobile reinforced many of the stories her parents have told her about the ancient civilization.

“I like when we get to learn about what people did in the past and how they lived,” she said. “Especially because the Maya came from Guatemala.”