Found 729 Learning Lab Collections
Latino Family Stories through Art
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
National Letter Writing Day- December 7
You’ll have access to the transcript of the text, as well as the primary source. Highlight some key facts about each letter to determine its main idea and purpose, by answering some guiding questions.
Giant Panda Baby - Video resources to complement nonfiction book
Innovations in Coffee Cup Lids
How Do Real Historical Resources Help Us Understand Fictional Characters? To Kill a Mockingbird
To explore this "essential question," the resources here offer different contexts for the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. They can help visualize and comprehend the setting of the book and the social issues of the Depression era in the South. With that understanding, students may better apprehend the choices and values of the characters in the novel.
Supporting question: "What was it like to live in small-town Alabama during that time?"
To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the ficticious Maycomb, Alabama, which author Harper Lee modeled on her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. Students may approach the images from the time period and place of the story (1930s) to consider how race and social class make a difference in how one answers that question.
Supporting question: "What important matters were in the news during that time?"
It's not a fact that Harper Lee based the trial in the novel on the Scottsboro boys, but it may have influenced her. Have students look for similarities and differences. What other events were going on? (e.g., Great Depression).
Have students explain how these resources help understand the characters in the novel.
Gettysburg Address

Thanksgiving for English Teachers
Origin Stories from Around the World
Creation myths, or origin stories, tell us what a culture believes about how humans came to be. They can also tell us much about what that culture values. These are often religious or spiritual explanations for human life.
Choose one of origin stories on this page to focus on. Read, watch, or listen to the story. Then, create a visual that illustrates a scene in the story that you think is revealing about that culture's values. Finally, write a paragraph summarizing what you learned about that culture based on their origin story.
To recap:
1. Read/watch listen.
2. Create a visual of 1 scene in the story.
3. Write a paragraph summarizing what you learned about that culture based on their origin story.

Women's Suffrage

Jumping In Looking Strategy: Learning to Look with the National Portrait Gallery
Visually rich portraits, with both objects and setting, are most effective when using this strategy.
Included in this collection are examples of portraits National Portrait Gallery educators have had success with when facilitating the jumping in looking strategy while teaching in the galleries: George Washington Carver, Alice Waters, E.O. Wilson, George Washington, Men of Progress, Shimomura Crossing the Delaware, and Tony Hawk
30 Second Look Strategy: Learning to Look with the National Portrait Gallery
Visually rich portraits, with both objects and setting, are most effective when using this strategy.
Included in this collection are examples of portraits National Portrait Gallery educators have had success with when faciltiating the 30 second look while teaching in the galleries: George Washington, Men of Progress, Shimomura Crossing the Delaware
California: A Land of Opportunity?
As we continue to read "The Grapes of Wrath," I'd like you to consider the way in which California represents the "American Dream." How has this changed over time? Has California always lived up to its image? Consider who has access to dreams and opportunities in California at any given time.
After you look through the collection, choose one of the following assignments to complete and submit your assignment using the "Submit File" option that is part of the last resource. Hint: you may want to take notes and/or save images as you are browsing the resources here.
Possible assignments:
1) Create a timeline of "Opportunities Gained and Lost" in California using at least 8 images from the collection. For each image, identify who is gaining or losing an opportunity in this instance, and what kind of opportunity is being referenced. Remember this is a timeline and will need to be in chronological order by year. Complete your timeline with an image that you have found (from the Learning Lab or an outside resource) that represents California today.
2) Would you argue that "California is a land of dreams"? How could you change that statement to make it more accurate? Write an essay defending your statement that references at least 4 images from this collection. You may want to do some additional research to supplement your essay.
Tags: point of view, change, continuity, cause, effect, Dust Bowl, drought, migrant, migration, chronology, Steinbeck

Droughts and Dust Bowls
Resources in this collection might be used in Language Arts, Social Studies, or Science classrooms. Questions to consider might include:
-How do people impact their environment?
-How do changes to the environment impact peoples' lives?
-How did government and society respond to the disaster of the Dust Bowl?
-What is government's responsibility in times of natural disaster?
-What steps can be taken to prevent future environmental disasters?

American Enterprise: Corporate Era (Great Depression, New Deal)
Investigating a Place: The Pacific Northwest
What defines a place? Is it its people? Economic life? Physical characteristics?
Examine this collection of images from or about the Pacific Northwest (loosely defined as Washington and Oregon states and British Columbia) to answer these questions: What are its unique set of physical and cultural conditions? How do these physical and cultural conditions interact? How does the economy of the PNW connect to its culture and geography? What are the consequences of human activity on the cultural and physical landscape?
Ask students individually or in small groups to create a collection in Learning Lab to represent the physical and cultural characteristics of another place (city, region, state). Using these collections, ask students to write summary statements describing the unique human and physical characteristics of places researched. Discuss student collections and what makes each place unique.
Tags: Portland, Seattle, Oregon, Washington, Vancouver, Native Americans, American Indians, grunge, space needle

Perspectives on China: Looking at Photographs to Understand Point of View
Women's Suffrage

Santa Claus: Comparing Evolving Imagery and Text
This collection gathers depictions of Santa Claus from ads, paintings, photographs, stamps from 1837 to today. Also, includes analyses of his evolving image from the Smithsonian Magazine and the National Museum of American History blog. How does the description of Santa in the Christmas poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas" compare with the images that follow? Includes a discussion question extension: How might you revamp Christmas stories to better reflect the time and country that you live in?
Keywords: Saint Nicholas, holidays, poetry
Lewis and Clark: an expedition across America
This is a Collection of resources including images, videos, text, online exhibits, and a lesson plan that support Lewis and Clark's expedition across American in the early 1800s.

African American Artists and Ancient Greek Myth: Teacher's Guide
This teacher's guide explores how myths transcend time and place through three modern paintings by African American artists, who reinterpret Ancient Greek myth to comment on the human experience. Collection includes three paintings and a lesson plan published by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which includes background information on myths and artists, as well as activity ideas. Also includes a video about the artist Romare Bearden and his series 'Black Odyssey.' The video details his artistic process, the significance of storytelling in his art, and the lasting importance of 'Black Odyssey.'
Tags: greece
Shoes: Exploring Culture, History, Place, and Innovation
Teacher's guide for using shoes to explore culture, history, place, and innovation. Includes images of thirty shoes and three different strategies, located at the end of the collection, for using these objects in the classroom.
Strategies include: a small-group object analysis activity; a poster, "If You Walked in My Shoes," introducing students to basic primary source analysis questions through six pairs of shoes; and a vocabulary exercise for ESL learners.
Developing Historical Thinkers with American Art
Resources supporting the February 2016 Google Hangout facilitated by the Smithsonian American Art Museum in coordination with the Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access.
#historicalthinking
Exploring American Ideals in Art
How can American ideals be defined and expressed in different ways? The United States of America is associated the ideals of Democracy, Rights, Liberty, Opportunity, and Equality. Those values have served as sources of inspiration for artists as goals that the nation aspires to (even if they are not always achieved). This collection contains artworks inspired by one or more of the ideals listed above. Students should choose a work and identify which ideal it relates to: Democracy, Rights, Liberty, Opportunity, and Equality.
In a short essay based on the artwork, students should answer the following questions:
-How would the student define Democracy, Rights, Liberty, Opportunity, or Equality?
-What is the artist trying to communicate about how this idea plays out in America?
-Does the student agree or disagree with the artist's interpretation?
If desired, students could create their own artwork based on one of the American ideals.
