Smithsonian Educator's Day 2021

Join educators from the National Air and Space Museum’s Teacher Innovator Institute to learn about bringing authentic questions, problems, and data to your classroom. Get ideas for projects and activities that explore real-world problems and engage students with a hands-on, minds-on approach. 

Discover how works of art and museum objects can be used across the curriculum to engage students in critical thinking and broaden the stories we tell in the classroom. In this interactive, discussion-based session, experience close-looking strategies modeled by museum educators, then hear from an English/language arts teacher about ways she has used museum resources successfully with students.  

Many look at the last school year with a sense of loss, especially learning loss. However, teachers understand learning has always been complex and far from linear. Join this panel of State Teachers of the Year who will share how they are taking the narrative of "learning loss" and turning it into one of "learning opportunity." 

The last year not only brought challenges induced by COVID-19, but it also surfaced the need for crucial conversations. Many teachers are ready to have tough conversations with their students, but don't know where to start. Join this panel of State Teachers of the Year who will share how they broach tough conversations with their students. You'll walk away with some language to use to help you get started. 

Through D.C. Public Schools' Cornerstones, students and teachers experience high-quality, powerful lessons as part of the curriculum. In this session, educators will learn best practices on how to use the curriculum to create, rich authentic experiences for students and families that have been designed to have a high impact on students beyond the classroom. 

To address the history of the Tulsa Race Massacre, Tulsa Public Schools wrote curricula on the massacre for grades 3-12 highlighting the agency and resiliency of Black Americans. Learn how we used an inquiry model and primary and secondary resources, interactive activities, and assessments to design these lessons. Consider questions and strategies providing students an opportunity to grapple with compelling questions about the Tulsa Race Massacre as well as the broader context of national issues. 

Join us to learn about a new resource kit, developed by the Smithsonian Latino Center and Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, which applies the story of the Farmworkers’ Movement as a case study for how civil discourse can take place in the classroom. Together, we’ll explore the context of the movement and its organizers, their important role in American history, the present-day impact of this history, and how you can access primary source materials to learn more about the movement and who shaped it. 

The Smithsonian and K-12 educators are both key players in the ecosystem of STEM learning. This presentation provides an opportunity to come together to strengthen those ecosystem bonds over the topic of climate change. Research shows that knowledge, empathy, and agency are three of the most important ingredients in discussions related to climate change.  

STEM is not just about the integration of science, technology, engineering and math. It is also about integrating diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion (DEAI) into the pK-12 classroom. The Smithsonian Science Education Center, Smithsonian Access, and the District of Columbia State Education Agency will share ways they work with pK-12 educators and education leaders to help them: (a) attract and retain a diverse pK-12 teaching workforce; (b) promote girls and women in STEM classrooms; (c) use universal design/inclusive design practices to support students with disabilities; and (d) engage English Learners. 

Join education specialists from National Museum of African American History and Culture, National Museum of the American Indian, and the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center to explore the ways cultural institutions, through object-based learning methods, can support positive racialized identity development with young children (birth to 8 years). Experts will provide an overview of how children develop a sense of self and others, and how racial equity and healing starts in childhood. 

Knowledge, skills, and understanding of science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) phenomena are vital to helping pK-12 students understand global problems and support local actions that address these challenges in an equitable and just way. In this interactive session, participants will receive free hands-on STEM resources from the Smithsonian Science for Global Goals project. 

This session will introduce educators to the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative’s digital series, “Women Changemakers You May Not Know.”  Session participants will learn about women in 19th and 20th century history who organized their communities to make change. Participants will gain strategies for incorporating these dynamic stories into their classroom. 

Alma Thomas (1891-1978) was a trailblazer and pivotal figure in the DC arts scene. As a Black woman artist, Thomas broke barriers throughout her career. Engage with artworks and hear from conservators, the "art doctors" who, through scientific analysis of the paintings, have made new discoveries about the artist’s process. How can Thomas' artwork and life inspire scientific curiosity, artistic creativity, and historical perspective-taking in students today? 

Using collections of primary and secondary sources from Smithsonian Archives, we will tell the story of how the Smithsonian came to be a place once thought by the first Smithsonian Secretary Joseph Henry to be “local in effect” to one of the world’s largest museum and research centers with global impact. This session will explore Smithsonian history through the lens of gender and race – focusing on the women and people of color central to our history. We plan to highlight themes that will be explored in two upcoming exhibits commemorating the 175th anniversary, including the online exhibit “Smithson to Smithsonian” and a banner exhibit in the Smithsonian Castle, featuring milestones and accomplishments of Smithsonian women. 

What do you think of when you think of the future? Join this session for a sneak peek into FUTURES opening this fall at the Smithsonian Arts + Industries Building. Explore the many possible ways we can be future makers shaping a more hopeful, inclusive, united, and sustainable world. The Smithsonian Science Education Center joins to share resources crafted in collaboration with FUTURES for teachers and students. 

How might we use objects of the past to tell stories for the future? Join artist Oasa DuVerney and Cooper Hewitt educators as we use objects as a tool for speculative thinking and storytelling in the classroom, engaging students’ creativity and supporting content learning across disciplines. 

In this session, educators will get a sneak peek at the National Zoo’s renewed Bird House exhibit, opening in 2022. Educators will learn about the Bird House’s exciting new aviaries that feature migratory birds of the Americas, tell the stories of their incredible journeys, and immerse audiences in learning about the chain of ecosystems they inhabit throughout their annual cycle. Staff will highlight exhibit design plans, education themes, upcoming programming hosted by the Zoo and Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, conservation actions we can all take to live bird-friendly, and ideas and resources educators everywhere can use to integrate migratory birds in their classrooms starting now! 

In this session we hope that our attendees will walk away with ideas and inspiration for how to think through a multigenerational lens to extend their classroom experiences into their learners’ homes. Using a variety of case studies, representing a range of various in person and digital programming targeted for learners pre-K through fifth grade, we will share what it takes to create a family experience in Q?rius, the Coralyn W. Whitney Science Education Center. We will share the guiding principles that direct how we develop our programs and shed light on some of the work of our teams throughout the National Museum of Natural History’s Department of Education, Outreach and Visitor Experience who make these programs happen. 

At Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, we are eager to help you find the resources you need for teaching preK-12 students across the nation and for your own professional development. We have nearly 3 million library volumes and 44,000 cubic feet of archival records. Through our rich collections and collaborations across the Smithsonian, we offer engaging content in the arts, sciences, history and culture, and museum pedagogy that will meet your curriculum needs. In this session, you'll learn more about the Libraries and Archives and explore how you can use Smithsonian resources for your work, from near or far. 

The exhibition, Orchids: Hidden Stories of Groundbreaking Women, (opening January 2022) features a living collection - orchids - and hidden stories of groundbreaking women who have contributed to orchids through scientific discovery, orchid cultivation, art, and botanical illustration. The goal of the exhibition is to highlight female scientists, horticulturists, and artists who have contributed to our understanding and appreciation of orchids, but whose achievements have often been overlooked. The session will discuss how Smithsonian Gardens transformed an exhibit known for its stunningly beautiful orchid display into one that highlights historic and current examples of the artistic and scientific contributions women have made and continue to make to broaden the public’s recognition and appreciation of unsung but influential women. 

As the world grapples with COVID-19, the need for students to understand how infectious diseases spillover from wildlife and spread to become pandemics has never been greater. Outbreak DiY is a freely available toolkit of educational resources designed to fill this information gap and help learners understand that the health of humans, animals, and the environment are intimately connected. This session will introduce educators to Outbreak DiY and provide real-world examples of how these resources can be used in the classroom. Best for teachers of grades 6-12. 

This sneak peek presents K-12 programming related to the exhibition Girlhood (it’s complicated). The exhibition, which examines young women’s roles in driving 200 years of American history, is currently on display at the National Museum of American History and will tour North America starting in spring of 2023. This session encourages and solicits national educators’ thoughts on how several educational resources related to the exhibition might be implemented in different learning environments and contexts during the national tour. 

The Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage is a small research center of the Smithsonian with big ideas, programs and impact. These include the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, and a very robust cluster of international cultural sustainability projects. Come learn how your classroom can participate in our folklife and cultural heritage programs throughout the school year! 

In this session, educators will learn how developing and leveraging students’ social and emotional learning, specifically their empathy for other people and animals, can engage students with real-world problems and build key early engineering skills and practices. Presenters will introduce a recent scenario in which animal keepers and engineers at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo successfully worked together to figure out how to keep sea lions and visitors protected from sunlight at the American Trail exhibit. Educators will learn how Zoo staff applied engineering skills to define and solve this real-world situation and will use resources from the Smithsonian Science Education Center and the Zoo to see how young students can model this engineering process in their own classroom.

Participants in this workshop will be provided a safe collaborative space to address and problem solve through four prominent barriers impacting diversity and inclusion in their informal education space. By activating collaborative investigation, participants will be challenged to create a series of solutions that will enhance their efforts to create an equitable shared learning environment. 

Come find out how you and your students can join Smithsonian researchers and scientists in being on a first name basis with the Universe. In this session you'll hear from scientists how telescopes on Earth and in space tell amazing stories about our place in the universe and learn from educators how you and your students can tell your own stories through free access to real telescopes.