MUSEUM IN A BOX
One reason for promoting the use of community resources among students and teachers naturally stems from a fundamental belief in the tremendous power objects (be they works of art, natural history specimens, historical artifacts, or live animals) have to educate. Objects and artifacts have the power to motivate and challenge students' learning across the curriculum. Researchers and educators interested in the learning children do in school have noted that children are active constructors, not passive receivers, of meaning and will become motivated to learn material when they are physically involved, have hands-on experiences, and generate questions.
Defining Artifacts
Artifacts are commonly referred to as man-made objects
Defining Specimens
An individual animal, plant, piece of a mineral, etc., used as an example of its species or type for scientific study or display.
Using Artifacts and Specimens
Using artifacts in the classroom sets the stage for inquiry and investigation. When presented with stimulating artifacts, children may happily take responsibility for their own learning. Inquiry may take many forms, using language and symbol systems to express ideas and to direct explorations, using movement, visual images, or sounds to express ideas and to direct explorations, or using emotions and evoked feelings to express ideas and to provide a powerful stimulus for explorations.
First, children can consider the practical functions and personal values of an artifact in original settings. Second, children can make cross-cultural comparisons of similar objects. Third, children can investigate how objects change over time. In the next section we share practical examples of each of these powerful approaches to artifact investigations.
Exploring Practical Uses and Personal Values
A teacher invited children to closely examine the old 1930's Sears and Roebuck Catalog. Fascinated by dozens of unusual illustrations, children's curiosity tumbled forth. Could you really order an entire house through the catalog? Why did a stove cost only $40.00? How long did it take to get an order? Responding to the children's enthusiasm, the teacher asked the children what personal values the catalog might have had for its owner. For example, when a grandmother spoke of her "wish book," she was talking about more than a catalog. The book probably represented dreams of a young girl who, during the Depression, may have wanted a china doll but was lucky to get a homemade rag doll. Children wrote a story about what the wish book would have meant to them if they had lived during the Depression.
In this scenario, the children first considered the practical uses of the artifact. This focus allowed them to generate questions and to begin forming hunches about the use of the catalog in a historical era. Moreover, the teacher guided children to consider the metaphor of a wish book to extend their thinking. By writing an affective response that created empathetic feelings, children understood the personal value of the artifact.
Children's understanding about the practical and personal uses of artifacts may be provoked when teachers ask them to consider why things become obsolete. For example, great-grandmother's flat iron could still be used to iron clothes today, but is no longer used because newer, lighter electric irons took its place. It now serves as a door stop and a reminder of an era gone by. Young students' wonderment about the simple flat iron may help them form generalizations about other, everyday household items that have become obsolete.
Making Cross-Cultural Comparisons
An assortment of baby blankets from around the world was displayed in a learning center. The teacher asked her students to discover if the pieces of cloth had anything in common. The children searched for an elegant solution to the task. First, they arranged the blankets by size and concluded that they could have been used only for something small. A magnifying glass was produced, and the students excitedly discovered the intricacies of the various patterns and textures of cloth. Working in cooperative groups, the children used reference materials to identify each blanket's place of origin. A hypothesis was formulated-that all provided warmth and comfort for infants-but each also told a story of how color, design, and textiles are woven together in different ways to celebrate and pass on cultural traditions.
In the above scenario, the teacher helped to diminish stereotypes by comparing similar artifacts from several cultures. The children saw that cultures have much in common as well as much that is unique. Stereotypes may also be overcome by identifying a time period during which the artifacts might have been used, and by recognizing their use by a specific ethnic group in a geographic area inhabited by many ethnic groups. In the specific case of Native Americans, it is important to present the uniqueness of each ethnic group accurately rather than attribute certain objects to all indigenous groups (Harvey, Harjo, and Jackson 1990). Ethnocentric bias may be further checked by helping students to investigate and understand the meanings that the producers of the artifacts attributed to the objects in their original cultural context. Students should be given many opportunities to explore artifacts that are non-stereotypical and historically accurate.
Cross-cultural inquiry should be conducted sensitively because of language and cultural bias constraints. A major purpose of an inquiry activity that crosses cultures should be to challenge ethnocentrism or the belief that one culture is superior to another. Recognition of this bias may be brought about effectively by focusing the students' attention on the language they use in discussing artifacts from another culture.
Comparing Change Over Time
Children eagerly examined two picture postcards of the same site. One postcard from the late 1800's showed a photograph of a new three-story, red brick school house on Elm Street. Children looked for objects, people, and activities in the pictures. They noted that the school must have been important to the community because no people or activities were shown with it. A trolley car and a milk wagon stood out front. After studying the message that said, "Mother, this is our school house. I just dearly love this place, so I get every picture I can of it and somehow the school house touches a place in my hart [sic] that no place in town does," children discussed the excitement that the new building must have caused in the community. Turning their attention to the second card, from the mid 1900's, they noticed telephone poles, a yellow school bus parked in front, and groups of children going up the steps. The message on the back read, "To My Dear Husband, Johnny just started 2nd grade. The school is just around the corner from mother's house. We are trying to adjust to being here without you. Be safe over there in Europe. Love, Your Wife." The teacher asked the children to generate questions about their observations of the pictures and writing. Why weren't there telephone poles in the first picture? Why wasn't there a trolley in the second picture? What inferences could be made about how life had changed in the town between 1890 and 1945? Children thoughtfully made hypotheses and conducted research to answer questions.
Picture postcards have been ubiquitous elements of twentieth century America that often are visual representations of history and culture. No aspect of life, nor any geographic setting, was too mundane or too trivial to be the subject of a picture postcard. They can refer to themes of local, economic, rural, and school life, as well as geography and the lives of ordinary people. An examination of picture postcards can depict architectural and technological changes over time. Geographical regions also change over the decades and, as indicated in the above scenario, picture postcards help children gain insight into the cultural and historical events that influence the changes in a town or on a specific street.
As demonstrated above, analysis of the photographs and messages on picture postcards can take many forms. The South Carolina Department of Archives and History (1990) suggests a three-step approach to help children analyze photographs: (a) list people, objects, and activities; (b) draw inferences based on the observations; and (c) generate questions and research answers about why the details in the photographs have changed over time. Explorations may be led by teachers, conducted in small, collaborative groups, or be individual research projects.
Reflecting On The Promise
Educational content is not viewed as a series of separate facts to be memorized, but as part of a larger, meaningful framework of knowledge that has application in the real world. When educators engage children in inquiry that focuses children's attention learning becomes meaningful because children have opportunities to construct understanding and build knowledge.
Defining Artifacts
Artifacts are commonly referred to as man-made objects
Defining Specimens
An individual animal, plant, piece of a mineral, etc., used as an example of its species or type for scientific study or display.
Using Artifacts and Specimens
Using artifacts in the classroom sets the stage for inquiry and investigation. When presented with stimulating artifacts, children may happily take responsibility for their own learning. Inquiry may take many forms, using language and symbol systems to express ideas and to direct explorations, using movement, visual images, or sounds to express ideas and to direct explorations, or using emotions and evoked feelings to express ideas and to provide a powerful stimulus for explorations.
First, children can consider the practical functions and personal values of an artifact in original settings. Second, children can make cross-cultural comparisons of similar objects. Third, children can investigate how objects change over time. In the next section we share practical examples of each of these powerful approaches to artifact investigations.
Exploring Practical Uses and Personal Values
A teacher invited children to closely examine the old 1930's Sears and Roebuck Catalog. Fascinated by dozens of unusual illustrations, children's curiosity tumbled forth. Could you really order an entire house through the catalog? Why did a stove cost only $40.00? How long did it take to get an order? Responding to the children's enthusiasm, the teacher asked the children what personal values the catalog might have had for its owner. For example, when a grandmother spoke of her "wish book," she was talking about more than a catalog. The book probably represented dreams of a young girl who, during the Depression, may have wanted a china doll but was lucky to get a homemade rag doll. Children wrote a story about what the wish book would have meant to them if they had lived during the Depression.
In this scenario, the children first considered the practical uses of the artifact. This focus allowed them to generate questions and to begin forming hunches about the use of the catalog in a historical era. Moreover, the teacher guided children to consider the metaphor of a wish book to extend their thinking. By writing an affective response that created empathetic feelings, children understood the personal value of the artifact.
Children's understanding about the practical and personal uses of artifacts may be provoked when teachers ask them to consider why things become obsolete. For example, great-grandmother's flat iron could still be used to iron clothes today, but is no longer used because newer, lighter electric irons took its place. It now serves as a door stop and a reminder of an era gone by. Young students' wonderment about the simple flat iron may help them form generalizations about other, everyday household items that have become obsolete.
Making Cross-Cultural Comparisons
An assortment of baby blankets from around the world was displayed in a learning center. The teacher asked her students to discover if the pieces of cloth had anything in common. The children searched for an elegant solution to the task. First, they arranged the blankets by size and concluded that they could have been used only for something small. A magnifying glass was produced, and the students excitedly discovered the intricacies of the various patterns and textures of cloth. Working in cooperative groups, the children used reference materials to identify each blanket's place of origin. A hypothesis was formulated-that all provided warmth and comfort for infants-but each also told a story of how color, design, and textiles are woven together in different ways to celebrate and pass on cultural traditions.
In the above scenario, the teacher helped to diminish stereotypes by comparing similar artifacts from several cultures. The children saw that cultures have much in common as well as much that is unique. Stereotypes may also be overcome by identifying a time period during which the artifacts might have been used, and by recognizing their use by a specific ethnic group in a geographic area inhabited by many ethnic groups. In the specific case of Native Americans, it is important to present the uniqueness of each ethnic group accurately rather than attribute certain objects to all indigenous groups (Harvey, Harjo, and Jackson 1990). Ethnocentric bias may be further checked by helping students to investigate and understand the meanings that the producers of the artifacts attributed to the objects in their original cultural context. Students should be given many opportunities to explore artifacts that are non-stereotypical and historically accurate.
Cross-cultural inquiry should be conducted sensitively because of language and cultural bias constraints. A major purpose of an inquiry activity that crosses cultures should be to challenge ethnocentrism or the belief that one culture is superior to another. Recognition of this bias may be brought about effectively by focusing the students' attention on the language they use in discussing artifacts from another culture.
Comparing Change Over Time
Children eagerly examined two picture postcards of the same site. One postcard from the late 1800's showed a photograph of a new three-story, red brick school house on Elm Street. Children looked for objects, people, and activities in the pictures. They noted that the school must have been important to the community because no people or activities were shown with it. A trolley car and a milk wagon stood out front. After studying the message that said, "Mother, this is our school house. I just dearly love this place, so I get every picture I can of it and somehow the school house touches a place in my hart [sic] that no place in town does," children discussed the excitement that the new building must have caused in the community. Turning their attention to the second card, from the mid 1900's, they noticed telephone poles, a yellow school bus parked in front, and groups of children going up the steps. The message on the back read, "To My Dear Husband, Johnny just started 2nd grade. The school is just around the corner from mother's house. We are trying to adjust to being here without you. Be safe over there in Europe. Love, Your Wife." The teacher asked the children to generate questions about their observations of the pictures and writing. Why weren't there telephone poles in the first picture? Why wasn't there a trolley in the second picture? What inferences could be made about how life had changed in the town between 1890 and 1945? Children thoughtfully made hypotheses and conducted research to answer questions.
Picture postcards have been ubiquitous elements of twentieth century America that often are visual representations of history and culture. No aspect of life, nor any geographic setting, was too mundane or too trivial to be the subject of a picture postcard. They can refer to themes of local, economic, rural, and school life, as well as geography and the lives of ordinary people. An examination of picture postcards can depict architectural and technological changes over time. Geographical regions also change over the decades and, as indicated in the above scenario, picture postcards help children gain insight into the cultural and historical events that influence the changes in a town or on a specific street.
As demonstrated above, analysis of the photographs and messages on picture postcards can take many forms. The South Carolina Department of Archives and History (1990) suggests a three-step approach to help children analyze photographs: (a) list people, objects, and activities; (b) draw inferences based on the observations; and (c) generate questions and research answers about why the details in the photographs have changed over time. Explorations may be led by teachers, conducted in small, collaborative groups, or be individual research projects.
Reflecting On The Promise
Educational content is not viewed as a series of separate facts to be memorized, but as part of a larger, meaningful framework of knowledge that has application in the real world. When educators engage children in inquiry that focuses children's attention learning becomes meaningful because children have opportunities to construct understanding and build knowledge.