<p>This collection explores field drawings from the United States Exploring Expedition, led by United States Navy Lieutenant Charles Wilkes from 1838-1842 utilizing several resources from the Smithsonian Field Book Project. Students will explore the elements of a field drawing, the information that can be gleaned from these records and consider why a naval scientific expedition might have included artists. To extend the activity, students can also select a fish image from the Smithsonian collection to illustrate and annotate the way that an artist in the field might.</p><p>Keywords: scientific illustration, sketches</p>

<p>In this activity, students will investigate human impact on our most essential resource, water and discover what they can do to make a positive difference.</p>

<p>This is a Smithsonian Learning Lab topical collection, which contains images, text, and other multimedia resources that may complement the Tween Tribune feature, <em><a href="https://www.tweentribune.com/article/teen/coastal-cities-ceed-rethink-how-they-deal-rising-waters/">Coastal cities need to rethink how they deal with rising waters</a></em>. Use these resources to introduce or augment your study of this topic. If you want to personalize this collection by changing or adding content, click the Sign Up link above to create a free account.  If you are already logged in, click the copy button to initiate your own version. Learn more <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/create" target="_blank">here</a>. <br /></p><p><br /></p>

<p>This collection presents three different <em>liberty bonds</em> primary sources dating from 1918: a postcard, sheet music/song, and a celebrity aviator's brochure. With these resources students will explore <em>L</em><em>iberty Bonds<span></span></em>, also called war bonds or liberty loans, which were essentially loans from the American people to the U.S. government to fund the Allies' involvement in World War I. Many public campaigns presented purchasing bonds as the patriotic way to support the war from the home front. Carefully chosen words and imagery conveyed this message and persuaded Americans to act quickly, through both subtle and direct messaging. </p> <p><u>Essential questions:</u> What role did Liberty Bonds play in financing the U.S. WWI effort? How did persuasive language techniques and visuals lead many Americans to see Liberty Bonds as part of their patriotic duty on the home front? </p> <p><u>Keywords:<span></span></u> primary source, secondary source, soldiers, World War I, Great War, Ruth Law, "What are you going to do to help the boys?", army, military, Uncle Sam, WWI, persuasion, advertising</p> <p>This collection was created in conjunction with the National Postal Museum's "My Fellow Soldiers: Letters from World War I" teacher workshop (July 19, 2017). It focuses on one of the many postcards from <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/my-fellow-soldiers-postcards-from-world-war-i/HPrCVWkR1wqjpK3k#r" target="_blank" style="background-color:rgb(63,63,63);">this topical collection</a> to demonstrate its use in the secondary classroom. #NPMTeacherPrograms<br /></p><p><em>#historicalthinking</em></p><p><br /></p>

<p>This topical collection includes the iconic "Moon Man" image of astronaut Buzz Aldrin, a National Air and Space Museum “expert annotation” video featuring a curator highlighting specific details, and other resources about the space suit and the Apollo 11 mission. </p> <p>Teachers and students may use this collection as a springboard for classroom discussions about the mission to the moon, for analysis of photographic details, or in biography projects about the astronauts.  <br /></p>

<p>Student activity collection analyzing the work of two very different Mexican American artists, identifying aspects of culture and exploring expressions about Latino experiences in art. Included in this collection, are five paintings highlighting Latino families, paired with observation and analysis questions and interviews with the artists, Carmen Lomas Garza and Jesse Treviño, as well as podcast analyses of the paintings from the museum's director. As a supplement, students could read a book by Garza depicting her childhood memories of growing up in a traditional Mexican American community, or lead a discussion comparing this artwork with other images of families found in the Smithsonian collections. #LatinoHAC</p>

<p>This topical collection includes images from Wilson A. Bentley's snowflake photography collection, which was donated to the Smithsonian in 1903. Bentley used a bellows camera that had a microscope inside to capture these small and unique natural objects. Also included in the collection is the original correspondence between Bentley and the Smithsonian, as well as ideas for using these sources in the classroom from the Smithsonian Institution Archives.</p>

<p>This topical collection includes resources related to featured women artists, actresses and performers. This collection includes portraits of the artists, actresses and performers, related artifacts, articles, videos with experts, and related Smithsonian Learning Lab collections. Use this collection to launch lessons about the women's life stories, primary source analysis, and examination of the context in which these women lived and made their contributions. This collection is not comprehensive but rather provides a launching point for research and study.  <br /></p> <p>Keywords: Hattie McDaniel, Aretha Franklin, Frida Kahlo, Anna May Wong, Selena Quintanilla, Maria Tallchief, Maya Lin, Gladys Bentley, #BecauseOfHerStory<br /></p>

<p>Developing an inquiry-based strategy to support students can allow them to investigate objects and images as historians do. In this example, students try to reveal the story behind the image. They raise questions for their own further research. Because the image has only a title, the photographer's name, the "sitter"'s name, the place and the date, students have to rely on their own analysis of evidence in the image, rather than someone else's interpretation. When they read the expert's analysis, they will have already considered many of the elements that the expert highlights and can compare their interpretations. </p><p>"Girl at Gee's Bend, Alabama" is a provocative photograph that can be used in discussions ranging from history of the South during the Great Depression, to social justice. </p>

<p>This is a Smithsonian Learning Lab topical collection, which contains interdisciplinary education resources, including student interactives, videos, images and blogs to complement the Smithsonian's national conversation on global climate change, highlighted on <em><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/second-opinion/second-opinion-education-resources-180963599/">Second Opinion</a></em><strong>. </strong> Use this sample of the Smithsonian's many resources to introduce or augment your study of this topic and spark a conversation. </p>

<p>[DESCRIBE YOUR STUDENTS' PODCAST TOPIC HERE; INCLUDE ANY IMAGES, NOTES OR DOCUMENTATION ABOUT THEIR PROCESS. </p> <p>EXAMPLE (3-4 sentences): <em>Sixth grade students conducted research about our community's access to clean drinking water, electricity, and roads over the past fifty years. St</em><em>udents identified subject matter experts, refined interview questions, conducted interviews and produced the episode included here. This collection includes the completed podcast episode, alongside text and images documenting the students' research and production process.</em>]</p> <hr /><p>This Smithsonian Learning Lab collection includes examples of student-created podcast epsidoes, in response to prompts from the <em><a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/profile/63455" target="_blank">Sidedoor for Educators</a> </em>collections. After listening to <a href="https://www.si.edu/sidedoor" target="_blank" style="background-color:rgb(63,63,63);">Sidedoor</a><em></em> podcasts to set context, gain background knowledge from Smithsonian experts, and initiate a local dialogue on the topic, students engaged in community-based scientific research to explore and collect evidence about how this topic and the content within the episode is defined locally.<br /></p> <p>To find additional student podcast collections, search the Smithsonian Learning Lab for <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/search?st=%23YAGSidedoor2019&amp;st_op=and&amp;item_type=collections">#YAGSidedoor2019</a>.</p>

<p>This collection begins with the analysis of a series of images from 19th and 20th century classroom settings. Next, learners will apply <em>Agency by Design</em> thinking routines to explore elements of their own classroom that could be re-designed. Learners will go through the design process to: </p> <ul><li>identify the precise challenge</li><li>brainstorm a solution, and</li><li>create a prototype.</li></ul><p>This lesson introduces the design process to learners through a familiar system, the classroom. It allows for learners to collaborate in the improvement and re-design of their own learning environment, while taking into account the needs of other users of the space. </p> <hr /><p><em>This collection was created as an example used in the "Smithsonian Learning Lab, Focus on Design" session at the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association (NJPSA) Arts Integration Learning Institute. </em><br /></p>