The "Mary Rose" was King Henry VIII's favourite battleship, which sank in the Battle of the Solent on 19 July 1545. She was raised in 1982 and brought back to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard where she is now housed in a multiaward-winning museum. The purpose-built Stavros Niarchos Foundation Learning Centre includes a teaching laboratory…

This article provides ideas and techniques to improve science teaching, while providing tips for planning and executing field trips. Discussed here are practical planning suggestions for choosing an appropriate destination months before the trip, the cost per student, availability of restroom and lunch facilities, transportation arrangements,…

Professional guidelines for English language arts call for the integration of multimodal literacy in the curriculum (National Council of Teachers of English, 2005). These guidelines are grounded in the belief that all meaning-making systems (e.g., visual, linguistic, spatial) are equally valuable. Each has unique potential that, when used…

Elementary students find it difficult to connect the apparent motion of objects in the sky with how celestial objects actually move in the solar system. As a university astronomy education researcher, the author has been investigating methods to help children learn astronomy through workshops and summer camps at science museums and planetariums.…

Informal science education institutions (ISEIs), such as museums, aquariums, and nature centers, offer more to teachers than just field trip destinations--they have the potential to provide ideas for pedagogy, as well as support deeper development of teachers' science knowledge. Although there is extensive literature related to teacher/museum…

Tackling challenging topics in history can be difficult, and sometimes teachers struggle to find age-appropriate ways to help students confront painful stories from the past. About four years ago, this author spearheaded a focus group with the purpose of taking on such a challenge. In the initial meetings, members of the group (four educators from…

This book details the Guggenheim Museum's classroom-tested, inquiry-based approach to learning. This user-friendly guide provides teachers (grades 2-8) with strategies and resources for investigating art to enhance student learning across the curriculum. "For the classroom teacher", Art Investigation provides an exciting way to study contemporary…

In 1985, the leaders of the Smithsonian Institution and the National Academies established the National Science Resources Center (NSRC) to address the critical problem identified by the "A Nation at Risk" report. Through its Curriculum Development Center and in partnership with its publisher, Carolina Biological Supply Company, the NSRC developed…

In "History and Imagination," elementary school social studies teachers will learn how to help their students break down the walls of their schools, more personally engage with history, and define democratic citizenship. By collaborating together in meaningful investigations into the past and reenacting history, students will become…

Mobile devices have been increasingly utilized in informal learning because of their high degree of portability; mobile guide systems (or electronic guidebooks) have also been adopted in museum learning, including those that combine learning strategies and the general audio-visual guide systems. To gain a deeper understanding of the features and…

When Caren Holtzman and Lynn Susholtz look around a classroom, they see "a veritable goldmine of mathematical investigations" involving number, measurement, size, shape, symmetry, ratio, and proportion. They also think of the ways great artists have employed these concepts in their depictions of objects and space--for example, Picasso's use of…

Recently, a group of fourth graders joined "Pintail Partners"--a year-long collaborative research effort of scientists, students, classroom teachers, preservice teachers, museum educators, and university professors. Students and teachers followed satellite tracking data (marking the pintail duck's spring migration) and interacted with scientists…

Looking for social studies adventures to help students find connections to democratic citizenship? Look no further! This book provides just the answer teachers need for engaging students in field trips as researching learners with emphasis on interdisciplinary social studies plus skills in collecting and reporting data gathered from field…

In this article, the author discusses an art adventure with her third, fourth, and fifth grade enrichment kids to the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art in Colorado. The author demonstrates and teaches her students how to use the art tissue paper and oil pastel complementing the creative spirit of the Jaune Quick-to-See Smith work presented…

Students at all levels need to have opportunities to represent themselves in their work in ways that are meaningful to them. The Family Artifact Museum Project provides an opportunity for students to accomplish this as they bring their family stories into the classroom and see how the lives of ordinary people are part of history. This project came…