Museum Monday: Smithsonian National Museum of American History

In April I will be traveling to Washington DC with 13 students who took Constitutional and Criminal Law last semester. They are so intrigued with the US Supreme Court, we are going there to sit in on oral arguments. While playing tour coordinator, I was poking around the National Museum of American History’s website. I love this museum. Beyond the content that supports current exhibits in Washington, there is a link for kids that has activities to do “at home” including make a (virtual) sod house, solving mysteries, and making light bulbs. Educators can obviously leverage all aspects of the website but are also able to search for resources by grade level, format (artifact, lesson plan, primary source) and time period to access the digitized resources of the museum. The website also hosts  67 online exhibits from the First Ladies and the Presidency to Julia Child’s Kitchen and communities in the late 1800’s, it is a given every subject and grade level can find something in the resources and virtual exhibits visits here.