Museum Resources for Distance Learning

Hashtags to follow for more resources, useful museum-related posts, and lists of museums offering virtual tours:
Guides to online collections, virtual tours, e-learning, and kid-centered museum resources:

U.S. Museums/Cultural Institutions:

  • Chicago Children’s Museum
    • Recipes for Play (activities done easily at home for Early Childhood Education) 

  • Smithsonian American Art Museum
    • “The American Experience” website–has teacher and student resources for interpreting art, putting into context, complementary readings, and some lesson plan ideas, some of which could probably be adapted for doing at home. 


International Space Station orbiting Earth.

 

  • Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
    • Biocubes activity adaptation–kids can pick an outdoor space they have access to (backyard, park, etc.) and mark a square to observe for a period of time (and maybe revisit over a few days). 
    • Webcast Archive
  • Pulitzer Center for Education
    • Distance learning programming:
      • Downloadable, standards-aligned lesson plans
      • Schedule a virtual presentation by a Pulitzer Center journalist.
      • Schedule a video conference workshop for your students that facilitates reflection on global issues through visual art, writing and discussion.

Francophone Museums:

                                                     

Spanish/Hispanic Museums:

                                               

Chinese Museums:

                                                 

Digital Platforms:

  • Digital Promise
  • Doodle Academy
  • EdVario
    • A gathering place for teacher-submitted teaching and school leadership strategies. 
  • Google Arts and Culture
    • Google has partnered with museums and other cultural institutions to digitize collections and exhibitions from around the world. You can search the site in many different ways–by color, by medium, by culture, by time period, etc.–or even by location!
    • A great place to start is the “Explore” page here.
  • Greater Good Magazine
    • Through articles, videos, quizzes, and podcasts, Greater Good magazine bridges the gap between scientific journals and people’s daily lives, particularly for parents, educators, business leaders, and health care professionals. 
  • National Art Educators Association (NAEA)
    • Remote Learning Tool Kit, by grade level: Representatives from every NAEA division have collected, curated, and shared strategies, approaches, lessons, units, and tools for distance learning.
  • National Geographic Kids
    • Games, puzzles, articles on a wide range of topics (science, history, geography, etc.)
    • Experiments that can be done at home.
  • Reasons to be Cheerful
    • David Byrne’s project for creating and collecting editorials that tell stories about the positive things happening in the world. An excellent tonic for our current times!