Museum Exploration Club

Created Feb. 7, 2024 by NDE Digital Learning

University of Nebraska- Lincoln Digital Commons - Honors Club

Museum Exploration Club

By: Aurora Kenworthy - University of Nebraska-Lincoln Copyright 2018 by Aurora Kenworthy under Creative Commons Non-Commercial License. Individuals and organizations may copy, reproduce, distribute, and perform this work and alter or remix this work for non-commercial purposes only.

Abstract

This club focuses on exploring topics in art, science, and history through a focus on museum exhibits.

NEBRASKA HONORS PROGRAM CLC EXPANDED LEARNING OPPORTUNITY CLUBS INFORMATION SHEET:

Name of Club: Museum Exploration Club 

Age/Grade Level: Kindergarten and First Grade (5 to 7) 

Number of Attendees: (ideal number) 10 to 15 students 

Goal of the Club: (learning objectives/outcomes) Learn about science, art, and history topics through virtually visiting museums around the world 

Resources: (Information for club provided by) I drew on my experiences as an intern at The Durham Museum in Omaha, Nebraska and at the Nebraska State Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska. I also utilized my knowledge from classes in history, science, and art history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 

Content Areas: (check all that apply) 

  • ☒ Arts (Visual, Music, Theater &Performance) 
  • ☐ Literacy 
  • ☒ STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering &Math) 
  • ☒ Social Studies 
  • ☐ Wellness (Physical Education, Health, Nutrition & Character Education) 

Outputs or final products: (Does the club have a final product/project to showcase to community?) N/A 

Introducing your Club/Activities: This club focuses on exploring a variety of topics through a focus on museum exhibits. 

General Directions: Each session began with a discussion of the museum and where it was located. If the museum wasn’t in the U.S., I also briefly discussed the language and culture of the country the museum was located in. After that, we transitioned into the activities that were related to the museum we were discussing that day. I recommend asking a lot of questions during the activities to keep the students engaged and give them an opportunity to discuss creative decisions, to talk about what they’re learning, or to have them practice critical thinking. 

Tips/Tricks: After running a Museum Exploration Club for kindergarteners and first graders, I ran the same club for second and third graders. In my experience, these lesson plans worked well for this age group as well, but I did make some modifications. If adapting these lesson plans for grades other than kindergarten and first grade, the way I made adaptations was simply allowing the students a little more independence and slightly less structure. For example, instead of coloring the Mona Lisa, I had the second and third graders draw their own portraits. Making those kind of changes were generally really successful. 

LESSON PLAN WORKSHEET

Lesson Activity Name #1: Smithsonian Natural History Museum

Length of Activity: Thirty to forty-five minutes 

Supplies: 

  • Computer and internet access
  • Fossil matching printout or card game 

Directions:
Introduction: 

  • Share that we’re going to be looking at dinosaurs today 
  • Ask what facts the students know about dinosaurs while you’re setting up the virtual tour 

Description:
Activity 1: Teeth 

  • Ask students what they’re favorite foods are 
  • discuss the differences between meat eating dino’s teeth and vegetable eating dino’s teeth 
  • Develop vocab (herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores) 
  • Use virtual tour of Smithsonian exhibit to see the differences on the dinos 
  • Discuss their teeth and how they have both (which teeth do what?) 

Activity 2: Birds 

  • Mention how birds are related to dinosaurs 
  • Practice making observations using footage of birds (write/raise hand with observations) 
  • Discuss how we can’t observe dinosaurs 

Activity 3: Fossils 

  • Play fossil matching game together to practice team work 
  • Remind them that we viewed fossils when we were looking at the Dino exhibit from the Smithsonian 

If time available, play duck, duck, dinosaur (duck, duck, goose)

Conclusion of the activity: Start cleaning up, ask each student to share one thing they learned while they line up for dismissal 

Parts of activity that worked: The students were really excited when we did the matching game. They stayed engaged for the other two activities as well. 

Parts of activity that did not work: While the students remained engaged during the first two activities, their attention wandered more quickly than I anticipated. In the future, I would recommend planning on spending less time on the actual museum exploration and more time on interactive activities. My future lesson plans reflected this transition. 

Lesson Activity Name #2: Musée de Louvre

Length of Activity: Thirty to forty-five minutes 

Supplies:

  • Mona Lisa coloring pages

Directions:
Description: 

Activity 1: Mona Lisa 

  • Examine copy of Mona Lisa; Discuss student observations 
  • Handout print out of Mona Lisa; Have students color 

Activity 2: Art Viewing 

  • Take turns going around the circle sharing their own Mona Lisas 
  • Have students take turns making observations and comparing to original 
  • Have students discuss their artistic choices 

Activity 3: I Spy 

  • Explain relationship between art and observation 
  • Explain connection between I Spy game and observation skills 
  • Have students take turns being ‘it’ and selecting and item that other students must guess 

If additional time remaining: can play Simon Says to practice mimicking 

Conclusion of the activity: Start cleaning up, ask each student to share one thing they learned while they line up for dismissal 

Parts of activity that worked: Students really like all of these activities. Students loved playing I Spy and enjoyed the coloring. 

Parts of activity that did not work: I think the only potential issue with this plan was that some students were a little shy about showing their artwork, but I made sure the students knew that there were expectations that we would not say negative things about others’ art and that helped ease some of the students’ nervousness. 

Lesson Activity Name #3: National Air and Space Museum

Length of Activity: Thirty to forty-five minutes 

Supplies: 

  • Paper
  • Images of airplanes 

Directions:
Activity 1: Paper Airplanes 

  • Give each student a piece of paper; Start by decorating briefly 
  • Help them fold into paper airplanes 
  • Have students practice throwing airplanes; Discuss gravity and why planes fall 
  • Briefly mention other concepts like aerodynamics, drag, etc. 

Activity 2: Comparing Airplanes 

  • Have students stand at line and throw airplanes 
  • Examine difference between ones that flew far and ones that didn’t 
  • Discuss in terms of concepts discussed above 
  • Develop hypotheses 

Activity 3: Redesigning airplanes and examining real planes 

  • Look at real airplanes 
  • Discuss observations from earlier activity 
  • Allow students to improve their airplane designs 

Conclusion of the activity: Start cleaning up, ask each student to share one thing they learned while they line up for dismissal 

Parts of activity that worked: Students really loved folding the airplanes. They were interested in testing the different styles of airplanes that people made and the different throwing techniques they developed. 

Parts of activity that did not work: I think the only change that I would make would be to keep the testing process a little more organized. Students started throwing their planes around while others were still folding theirs and it caused a little bit of momentary chaos. Maybe stating that we won’t test our planes until everyone is done and ready to go and then keeping the testing a little more orderly and having only one person go at a time would keep it from getting too chaotic. 

Lesson Activity Name #3: Denver Art Museum

Length of Activity: Thirty to forty-five minutes 

Supplies: 

  • Image of Navajo blanket; habitat print out 

Directions:
Activity 1: Blanket Activity 

  • Look at the photo of the Navajo blanket 
  • What parts do you like 
  • What pars don’t you like 
  • Make their own blankets by having students design and color blankets on paper 

Activity 2: Discuss living in the Southwest 

  • Discuss the components of a habitat 
  • Where would the animals live? 
  • Have them color and think about where to place animals 
  • Ask questions about their decisions to place animals in each habitat 

Activity 3: Games 

  • Laughing Game; Pair up and sit opposite each other; If you laugh, you’re out 
  • Bouncing ball on hand (make ball out of paper?); Who can keep it in the air the longest? 
  • Bear Race 
  • Crab Race 
  • Frog Race (hop) 

Conclusion of the activity: Start cleaning up, ask each student to share one thing they learned while they line up for dismissal 

Parts of activity that worked: I think making the blankets went over really well. Students liked discussing what shapes were in our sample Navajo blanket and then analyzing the shapes in other students blankets. 

Parts of activity that did not work: There were a couple of students that struggled to stay focused during the habitat activity, so maybe reordering it so the games are in between the blanket and the habitat activity would be better. 

Lesson Activity Name #4: Neues Museum (Berlin)

Length of Activity: Thirty to forty-five minutes 

Supplies: 

  • Paper
  • Markers
  • Crayons, or colored pencils
  • Hieroglyphics print out 

Directions:
Activity 1: Create a pyramid 

  • Discuss how Egyptians built their pyramids 
  • Handout blank paper and have students decorate 
  • Go step by step showing how to fold the pyramid 
  • WikiHow has good steps to follow if you need help 

Activity 2: Write with hieroglyphics 

  • Have students write out their names using hieroglyphic alphabet handout 
  • Discuss level of difficulty- is it easier or harder than other alphabets? 

Conclusion of the activity: Start cleaning up, ask each student to share one thing they learned while they line up for dismissal 

Parts of activity that worked: The students loved decorating their pyramids and then writing their names in hieroglyphics. They liked comparing names and the shapes each of their names required. 

Parts of activity that did not work: The pyramid was fun and the students seemed to like it, but they struggled with following the folding directions. I think in the future maybe printing a pyramid template that they can cut out and then just make one fold would be better. The pyramid we made had too many steps and they got tired of following directions I think towards the end. 


Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/honorshelc
Part of the Art Education Commons, Early Childhood Education Commons, and the HigherEducation Commons
This Portfolio is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors Program at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Expanded Learning Clubs by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Kenworthy, Aurora, "Museum Exploration Club" (2018). Honors Expanded Learning Clubs. 6. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/honorshelc/6

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