At the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Lower Manhattan, history lives behind glass. But on the museum’s lower level, in the imagiNATIONS Activity Center that opened in May 2018, Native American culture comes to life.

From their close encounter with a 22,500-pound anchor to lessons about how ship technology has evolved, Brooklyn Arbor School students were fascinated by a class trip to the Brooklyn Navy Yard and its “Ingenius Innovations” exhibit.