Welcome to the Michigan Historical Museum “Teachers' Stuff.” The topics are correlated to the museum's permanent galleries, so they make good pre- and post-visit resources. However, even if you are not planning a field trip to the museum, they can be used with any Michigan history unit. This page offers suggestions for use of the items marked “lesson plans.”

How to Use the Lesson Plans

Main Concepts and Understandings

Use the "Main Concepts and Understandings" to guide your choice of activities in these pages. They will also help you decide where you want to spend time during your museum visit. After the visit, let the concepts guide how you measure your students' museum trip learning achievement.

Background Notes

Background notes provide information for your own Michigan history "refresher." Use this information to introduce the topic to the students. If the Lesson Plan also includes a vocabulary list, this is the time to introduce new words to the class.

Objectives and Social Studies Content Standards

Compare these to your curriculum goals. If they fill a need, the lesson plan is a good choice. If they do not appear to match your needs, read through the lesson to see if an objective not mentioned might also be covered before discarding the lesson. These lessons are designed to be used across the curriculum. Although the objectives and content standards listed here relate to social studies, it may be an appropriate way to bring Michigan history into a language arts, science, art or other unit.

Materials Needed and Directions

These sections provide basic steps in conducting the activity with the students. Select and adapt activities according to the abilities of the students and concepts you wish to emphasize. Activities requiring a handout such as a puzzle or map include a master for the handout. Some activities require the teacher or students to provide items needed, such as a highway map of Michigan, shoe boxes for dioramas or corn for husking.

Questions for Discussion or Research

These questions can extend understanding of the concepts in your class discussion during or following the lesson. They can also be used as oral or written work for "extra credit" or with gifted students who want to explore a topic further.

At the Museum

"At the Museum" suggests special ways to pay attention to things the students will see during a field trip to the Michigan Historical Museum in Lansing. We do not recommend that students bring handouts with questions to answer during their visit ("scavenger hunt" or trivia question activities). When students must answer specific questions they are distracted with a goal of filling in blanks rather than actively learning. They miss much of what there is to be learned from the museum through higher level thought processes.

References

The text and/or online resources offered here will help you prepare to teach the lesson. Some may be at student level and can be used as further reading in the classroom.

Updated 05/12/2004

Michigan Historical Center, Department of History, Arts and Libraries
Use and Reproduction Information [PDF]
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