Washington DC: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Every year our school takes Grade 10 to Washington DC. Last year I became a Grade 10 advisor (to line up with also becoming their Personal Project Coordinator), so had my first ever visit to DC. Two of my colleagues (and friends!), Ilse and Sherry, have been working on changing the experience to make the trip morning meaningful and to link more to the IB - With the help of some thinking routines and the IB's Global Contexts. They brought me on board after their initial planning to help them with the activities.

Throughout the trip, students will be adding notes to a journal. The activities we have designed are supposed to be short and sweet and will not take up the whole time they are at any particular location. 

I will share several of the activities on this blog, so that other educators may use them in they are also visiting DC.

Our activity for the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
IB's Global Context: Identities and relationships (exploration: Identity formation; self-esteem; status; roles and role models).
This museum opened shortly after our last trip, so none of us have been there yet. However, we were able to use resources we found on their website. When students arrive at the museum, they will sort themselves in small groups, and will each be given a double sided card. On one side they will see the object they should find when walking through the museum - on the other side they will find prompts to answer before and after seeing the object, (we think there might be a bit of a wait outside)!

Here's a link to the presentation - feel free to make a copy and adapt it for your school. You can also find out more about these images on the NMAAHC website here.

More posts about our Washington DC plans soon :)