The Smithsonian Summer Sessions: Interrogating the Stories We Tell (edX)

In this course, you’ll discover how museum objects and works of art can broaden our perspectives, reveal silenced stories, and make relevant connections to our world today. Museum educators will explore connections among their collections and model teaching strategies that participants can implement with their students, whether online or in the classroom.

Teachers, join six Smithsonian museums for 14-weeks of teacher professional development from home. We’ll introduce the Smithsonian Learning Lab, a free, online platform for accessing digital museum resources and creating interactive learning experiences with them. Participants will discover how to teach with museum resources to engage students in deeper thinking and support content learning across disciplines.

Over the duration of the course, you will reflect on what you have learned and workshop ideas to create a learning experience for your classroom.

This course is part of the The Smithsonian Summer Sessions: Teaching with Museum Objects Professional Certificate.

What you'll learn

- Gain expertise from educators from multiple Smithsonian museums through recorded video sessions

- Reflect and share ideas with a community of educators via discussion forums

- Explore inquiry-based strategies for integrating museum objects and works of art into your teaching, whether in the classroom or online

- Learn to use a variety of educational technology tools, including the Smithsonian Learning Lab, to curate digital resource collections and share lesson ideas