Found 457 Learning Lab Collections
Coleção sobre arte grega antiga e representações posteriores de sua cultura.
This collection explores the cultural and historical significance of two diplomatic missions by Hawaiian King Kalākaua and Queen Kapi'olani to the United States. These 19th-century diplomatic missions established the first state dinner hosted by U.S. President Grant and included the gifting of a canoe from Queen Kapi'olani to the Smithsonian. Students can watch a video interview about this history and answer guided questions, then look closely and analyze portraits of the monarchs, read more about the history of U.S. state dinners, and learn about the contemporary collaborations curators have with community members to reveal the history of objects, as described in the film.
This Smithsonian Learning Lab collection received Federal support from the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.
Tags: Hawaii, Kapiolani, Kalakaua, outrigger canoe, wa'a, diplomacy
The following collection contains a possible lesson plan with ideas on how to use the resources. The collection consists of information that identifies the bravery and contributions of Native American Code Talkers.
This Learning Lab collection has been created to support the 2019 National History Day theme, Triumph and Tragedy in History. Utilizing portraits and other resources from the National Portrait Gallery, this collection is organized by Topics within the Triumph and Tragedy theme.
Be sure to check out the following at the end of the collection:
-Reading Portraiture Guide for Educators highlights close looking strategies that can be used with the portraits listed
-Triumph and Tragedy In History Theme Book from National History Day 2019
This collection is designed for a high school U.S. history course and includes a unit/lesson plan that guides students through the process of writing a persuasive essay drawing on varied sources for evidence. The unit is book-ended by two lessons which analyze three separate works of art. #SAAMteach
Included in this collection are several of Titus Kaphar's works in the "Unseen: Our Past in a New Light." Ken Gonzales-Day is also featured in one portrait of an "Erased Lynching." The general objective is for students of US Justice, Law, & Society to make connections and intersections, between the portraits in this special exhibition, and another portrait in the NPG. This lesson is intended for undergraduate students, but could be modified for secondary education. This collection was created in conjunction with the National Portrait Gallery's 2018 Learning to Look Summer Teacher Institute. #NPGteach
The theme of TIME can be explored in art using key concepts throughout the semester or year. Explore various concepts related to the idea of TIME by playing the Connections Card Game. The mind maps made after playing the game can be used as a reference throughout the course.
- Download and print images on card stock (resource attached to this collection). Create multiple sets for small groups to play the game.
- Print Key Concept Cards (resource attached to this collection)
- Take turns choosing a card and connecting it to a key concept by placing it near an appropriate Concept Card.
- Defend choice with evidence in the image.
- After all cards have been played, students make inferences about how people experience, measure or represent time.
- Small groups collaborate to draw a mind map to illustrate their ideas.
- Present maps in a "Carousel Interview." One group member stays with the mind map to answer questions; other group members visit tables to explore mind maps and ask questions.
- Return to original group. Encapsulate overarching ideas and record them on your group's mind map.
This collection was designed to be used in a third grade classroom to supplement the teaching of the three branches of U.S. government. The collection would be utilized over the course of a week-long unit.
Objective: Students will be able to identify and explain the purpose of the three branches of the U.S. government.
Presented with the National Museum of the American Indian December 9, 2017 9:30a.m.–1:30 p.m.
What learning opportunities arise when we add complexity to “the story” of westward expansion? How can Native perspectives and contemporary events engage student historians-in-training? Leave with strategies and resources that will help you add depth and breadth to your teaching and inspire inquiry in the classroom.
This teaching collection asks students to explore William Steinway’s Diary—which includes diary passages, Steinway family photographs, maps, and advertisements that bring alive the fear and chaos of the 1863 Civil War Draft Riots and his hands-on role in the creation of the New York City subway and the company town of Steinway in modern-day Astoria, Queens - as a jumping off point to understand the second half of the 19th century. Included are two Project Zero Thinking Routines and an Analysis Sheet to help students analyse these primary documents. Students can also expand the activity by researching other historical writings (newspapers, journals, city maps, etc.) from the time period, to gain a deeper understanding of this dynamic period in American history.
The online exhibition describes: "Over 36 years, nine volumes, and more than 2,500 pages, entries record a newlywed’s exuberance, his observations of a country at war, and his emergence as a leader in the cultural, political, financial, and physical development of New York City. In near-daily entries until his death in 1896, William details the period’s financial panics and labor turmoil, rise of the German immigrant class, growing sophistication of transportation, and fierce piano manufacturing wars in which his family firm, Steinway & Sons, was a major player. A proud member of New York’s German American community, William was at once an immigrant success story and an ambitious industrialist whose development of the company town of Steinway left a lasting imprint on modern-day Queens."
Resources to accompany a unit on the YA novel The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt.
This collection contains the provocative piece The Way They Was and asks students to make parallels to the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. It uses thinking routines such as "See/Think/Wonder", "Circle of Viewpoints", and "Claim/Support/Question". There is also a graphic organizer in the shape of a door that allows students to record the connections they see between the piece of art and the novel. This lesson can be used after Chapter 25 or at the end of the novel.
This Collection contains resources to help students understand the three branches of government in the United States.
SWBT identify and describe the purposes of each branch of the United States government.
This collection was made to pair with a learning experience during the November 17th workshop for Pittsburgh teachers working with the Smithsonian Learning Lab. Teachers will visit the Steamboat Arabia exhibit and learn from a Heinz History Center curator about the decisions made and limitations faced when creating an exhibit for visitors to learn from.
Both the online collection and the Heinz History Center exhibit explore the question "How do new innovations in transportation affect American life?"
The collection below contains artifacts and images from the Smithsonian collection that might help students and teachers respond to the question above. Suggested scaffolding questions might include:
- Identify the changes in technology and transportation that occurred between 1800-1850.
- How did these new transportation systems impact the movement and interactions of groups of people, the expansion of trade, and cultural life on the frontier?
- How do the items in this collection compare to what was found during the recovery of the Steamboat Arabia?
- How can we learn more about history through a photograph?
- How do social factors, such as racism, influence change?
- How much power do American citizens have to change government policies?
- What factors drove the Jim Crow era and segregation after the Civil War?
- How did Americans push back against discrimination, specifically segregation, and fight for civil rights?
This series of lessons is designed as a broad introduction to the factors leading up to the Civil Rights Movement. Students will look closely at the 13th, 4th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution. Students will then explore some of the factors leading to and consequences of the rise of segregated America during the Jim Crow era in the years following the Civil War. They will look closely at powerful images that exemplify some of the Jim Crow laws, and then explore some of the court cases and responses of citizens that helped to bring about some changes leading up to and during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.
Time: 3-4 class periods with optional maker project assessment.
Anticipatory set: Have students complete a chalk talk to unravel their definitions of equality vs. racism. Discuss and formally define equality and racism.
Looking closely: Share the image of the water fountains and notice similarities and differences (Optional opportunity to use the See - Think - Wonder thinking routine). Discuss context of Jim Crow era and explain we will be exploring what factors led to these laws and how people fought to change them.
Have students look closely at the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments and dissect the language of the amendments to understand their meaning using the Parts, Purposes, Messages thinking routine. Read page one of iCivics Jim Crow handout. Students should record examples of equality and racism on post it notes as they read. When finished, they can add these post it notes to the chalk talk posters with definitions of equality and racism as they discuss their examples.
Anticipatory set: Use the Imagine if... thinking routine to have groups of students explore challenging Jim Crow era issues.
Looking closely: Read "Jim Crow and the Great Migration" and have students continue to record examples of equality vs. racism on post it notes to add to the chalk talk posters from yesterday. Explore powerful Jim Crow images with a chalk talk using the Reporter's Notebook thinking routine.
Discuss how some people began to speak out against the injustices of the Jim Crow laws, both directly and indirectly. Compare and contrast the approaches of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois. Then read "I, too" by Langston Hughes. Students should complete the See/Hear - Think - Wonder during their first listen. Then students can deconstruct the poem in groups, paying attention to both the literal and figurative meaning of the metaphor of the kitchen in the poem.
Exit ticket/Reflection: What are the multiple meanings of the kitchen in the poem, "I, too," by Langston Hughes? What was his purpose for writing this poem?
Anticipatory set: Use the Making it Fair: Now, Then, Later thinking routine to start to identify how people could have made these Jim Crow restrictions more fair.
Looking closely: Read "The Road to Civil Rights" handout from iCivics. Students can add equality vs. racism post its to their original chalk talks. Watch the video of the sit-in reenactment (optional - reenact a sit-in in the classroom). Look closely at images of marches, sit-ins, boycotts, and court cases and use the Reporter's Notebook thinking routine to notice the layers of interactions during the events.
Optional assessment: Introduce the Journey to Civil Rights maker project. Allow students 3-4 days to work on their artifacts and essay explaining their choices.
This teaching collection and student activity includes the resources necessary to teach an EDSITEment lesson on the Ramayana where students read closely to find examples of the Hindu concept of dharma.
Guiding questions are:
- What is dharma?
- How does the Ramayana teach dharma, one of Hinduism's most important tenants?
tags: Hinduism, Hindu, India, dharma, Ramayana, rama, epic, Vishnu
How do we represent our roots artistically? What can a portrait tell us about the sense of identity of the subject? Focusing on a famous athlete from the Dominican Republic, students will explore the personal history of the pitcher, Pedro Martínez, and how his cultural pride is portrayed on canvas. Class members will read a recent biography of Martínez before examining his portrait, Pride and Determination, currently on exhibition in Twentieth-Century Americans: 1990 to Present. #NPGteach
How do contemporary artists grapple with the under- and misrepresentation of certain minorities in portraiture and American history? Participants will explore the newly unveiled portraits of President Barack Obama by Kehinde Wiley and former First Lady Michelle Obama by Amy Sherald and discuss how these artists are looking to the past to paint the present. After close reading these images, participants will consider how artists Ken Gonzales-Day and Titus Kaphar, in the exhibition “UnSeen: Our Past in a New Light,” uncover voices previously unheard.
The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States is a collection of resources for educators to refer to when introducing the Constitution of the United States with a specific emphasis on the preamble. Mike Wilkins Preamble is used as a featured piece of artwork to give students an initial introduction to the text of the primary source document. #SAAMteach
This collection, based of the exhibition "Imperfectly Beautiful: Inventing Japanese Ceramic Style" is integrated in a unit on Francis Ponge’s collection of poems called The nature of things, 1942, France. In his poems, Ponge has a unique way of focusing on everyday life objects and symbols that he describes in very tiny details. The goal is to explore how Ponge’s perception of objects and symbols can be used as an entry point for an exploration of key components of other cultures. This collection is an opportunity for the students to understand how micro perspectives can lead to global and intercultural understanding.
The collection represents tea pots used for the Japanese tea ceremony (chanoyu). Through slow looking techniques, students explore them and write poems using the thinking routine "Creative Comparison".
Step 1: choose one of the tea pot and sketch it
Step 2: Pair and Share - Explain your choice. What did you notice? what do you notice in your classmate's choice/object?
Step 3: Creative Comparison
The thinking routine " Creative comparison" encourages metaphorical thinking – central to the work of any artist and to creative thinking in any discipline. Metaphors provoke our imaginations to create comparisons between dissimilar things, often leading to deeper and richer understanding of each." (PZ)
Step 4: Pair and Share (with someone else) - Explain your choice. What did you notice? what do you notice in your classmate's choice/object?
Step 5 : read the description of the exhibition and the caption. Answer the questions:
- In what way this new information influences your interpretation?
- What does it confirm? What new ideas do you have?
- What could you do to integrate them in your poem?
Step 6 : write a poem, using Francis Ponge's approach to objects.
Ask the students to reflect on ways to curate their poems, using the thinking routine "Layers".
For instance, my students decided to do a a pop-up exhibition. They turned their poems into bilingual bookmarks for the school fair. It was a good opportunity for us to talk about translation.
This collection explores the evolving history of how Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. The introductory video, podcast and lesson in the collection help provide context for the complicated portrayal and depiction of what actually happened at the first Thanksgiving and how it is celebrated today.
The images in this collection are different portrayals of the holiday over time. They have been grouped in order of publication from 1863 to 1994. As you look through them and complete the activities, think about these three key questions:
- How does the context in which an image was produced affect the result? Meaning, how does what was happening at the time affect what kind of picture of Thanksgiving we see?
- What do the images say about our national identity: who is welcome in the United States? What do we celebrate and why? Whose version of the Thanksgiving story does each image tell?
This lesson will examine how innovation in the distribution of food had a lasting effect on the consumer, the worker and the community.
Students will be invited to study Ralph Fasanella's Iceman Crucified. They will start by examining the painting with the VTS method: What’s going on in this picture?, What do you see that makes you say that? and What more can we find?
Students will then be introduced to our set of supporting documents. At the conclusion of studying these sources we will revisit Iceman Crucified using the Step Inside: Perceive, Know about, Care about. This will include questions: What can the person or thing perceive? What might the person or thing know about or believe? What might the person or thing care about?
Students will end with a creative assignment that will ask them to give a Eulogy on the iceman
Students will explore these sources to spark inquiry and investigation about how the Civil War impacted American society.
- Students can complete the sorting activity to categorize the images.
- Students should select one source they find most intriguing and generate questions about the source and its related topic by completing the quiz question.