Museums · 01-26-2017
Throughout my teaching and museum education career, I have visited numerous museums. One year, while teaching fourth grade in York County, Virginia, the students and I visited eight museums! We immersed ourselves in awe-inspiring, active learning. Like all successful learning experiences, we spent time building our background knowledge prior to the visits. This allowed students to make connections and understand the central ideas within each museum’s program. Convincing administrators of the...
Museums · 02-02-2016
The Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site has much to offer visitors interested in the history of civil rights. It is located in the former Monroe Elementary School, one of four segregated elementary schools established for African Americans in Topeka, Kansas, and it is the only national park named after a United States Supreme Court case. Visitors learn how Brown v. Board of Education ended legal segregation in public schools and how “the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has...
Museums · 01-14-2016
Power and Pathos, the exhibit of bronze sculptures at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., is remarkable. Fifty bronze sculptures, dating from the 4th century BC to the 1st century AD, capture the “dynamic realism, expression, and detail that characterize the new artistic goals of the era.” Innovations from a distant time still seem relevant today and offer inspiration for prolonged viewing and future exploration. Only a small fraction of ancient bronzes survives because most...