Grade Levels Middle School, 6th to 8th Grade

Smithsonian Artifact Auction

Lesson Abstract

Have you ever looked at a display in a museum and wondered how it was created? How did the museum curator decide what artifacts to include? Does the way the pieces are displayed make the display more interesting? Here is a lesson to give middle school students the opportunity to work in small groups to create their own museum style display poster.

 The lesson incorporates learning objectives related to primary sources, artifact analysis, themes in history and includes an economics driven competition. This lesson may be adapted to fit any time period in history and may include one to twelve themes. Students have access to a website of thousands of artifacts and may use the internet to create their museum displays. A plus delta evaluation allows the students to evaluate each other's work and the competition of the auction creates a lot of excitement. Your students will beg to do this lesson again.

Teachers

Mark Kramer - Thomas Jefferson Middle School, Mount Lebanon School District, Pittsburgh, PA

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