Making a Case for Museum Communities as Partners in K12 Education: Cross-Curricular Efforts in Schools can be Reinforced in Detroit Museums

For my latest assignment in my MA program I was tasked with writing a newspaper article about a museum issue.  The article is quite lengthy, but you may find it interesting, especially if you love Detroit museums!

(Please note that I had to choose a paper to write for for the assignment. I am not a journalist for the Detroit Free Press and this article was not published by the paper.)

                                                                                                                            

The Detroit Free Press

Making a Case for Museum Communities as Partners in K12 Education: Cross-Curricular Efforts in Schools can be Reinforced in Detroit Museums

By: Hillary Hanel

            Museums have become increasingly involved in education in recent years. This shift has been in response to the changing needs of surrounding communities. The museums of Detroit are no exception. The Metro Detroit community has a number of incredible museums including the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Michigan Science Center, the Detroit Historical Museum, The Henry Ford Museum, the Holocaust Memorial Center, the Motown Museum, and so many more. Many of our local museums are supporting education through outreach programs and inviting school groups for field trips. The DIA even offers free admission and transportation for school groups in Wayne, Macomb, and Oakland Counties.

            Students can already have a diverse selection of educational museum experiences, but I think that our network of Detroit museums can do even better. What if museums from different disciplines partnered together to create rich, cross-curricular programs for our students? As a former teacher, I understand how important cross-curricular learning has become in the classroom, and as a current museum professional I see a great opportunity for museums to help fill this educational need.

Defining Cross-Curricular Instruction

            According to the Department of Education in Virginia: "Cross-curricular instruction integrates content and skills from multiple content areas into one cohesive learning experience. When using this model, students are able to experience their school subjects as connected and interrelated, rather than isolated and fragmented." (Virginia Department of Education) Many education professionals agree that when students build connections between subject areas  they also build collaborative skills and employ higher level thinking skills. 

            One education professional, Ben Johnson explains successful cross-curricular instruction in three steps. First, both students and teachers should be engaged in deep learning. This is the main reason that cross-curricular instruction is worthwhile. Second, the teacher cannot do it on their own. Enthusiastic student partners, as well as parents and community members are often necessary to create a successful program. Third, Johnson says "it requires intensive preparation." Cross-curricular instruction is not a lesson plan that a teacher can develop the night before. Though it requires an immense amount of work, the successful learning experiences make it worthwhile.

            Cross-curricular instruction can take many forms. In a simple classroom example, a history teacher might include a simulation on trade routes which also involves math. In another case, a team of teachers might collaborate on a larger project with a certain theme, which each teacher bringing in elements of their subject area. Students would have the opportunity to learn about different aspects of a common topic and gain an in-depth understanding of the connections between their classes.

            Cross-curricular instruction is an opportunity for teachers, experts, and students to collaborate and learn from one another. Museums have many experts on staff including curators, educators, collections managers, and conservators. By creating partnerships between schools and museum communities, students could benefit from an enhanced curriculum, rich resources, open-ended activities, and new pathways for individual interests. (Learning Through Culture, 24)

            In the article "Tearing Down Walls," the author suggests that museum visitors should be empowered to make their own learning choices and that museum educators should respect and support diverse ways of making meaning. This idea describes a great way in which museums can be a partner to schools by allowing students to guide their own learning in a way that will still support the school curriculum. (Silverman, 8-13)

            There are many examples of successful cross-curricular partnerships between schools and museums. By taking a closer look at these other programs, and at our own local schools and museums, it may be possible to create impressive new learning opportunities in Detroit.

Examples of Success

            Around the world, museums have recently made it a top priority to develop programs and resources that meet the needs of students and teachers. These may consist of programs within the museum, as an outreach program, or as digital resources. The following examples are just a few of the many museum programs that have succeeded in providing cross-curricular instruction.

            One example can be found in North Devon, United Kingdom. There, three schools piloted a program in which students visited one of the local museums, had a program session in school, and developed technological skills as part of a web-project. The goal of this particular program was for students to have an open-ended assignment which involved technology, literacy, art, and history. Through this program, titled "North Devon on Disk," participants helped to produce high-quality online resources and build a partnership between the local museums and schools. (Learning through Culture, 22)

            Another museum in the United Kingdom that provides cross-curricular opportunities is the Fleet Air Arm Museum located in Somerset. Their program combines history, technology, and literacy as it relates to the unique museum collection. Students may learn about design and technology  as they design, build, and fly airplanes. The museum has its own "Physics of Flight Laboratory" for these educational purposes. (Learning through Culture, 22) This aviation museum lists several other cross-curricular programs on their website. Secondary students can gain math skills as they measure and record data while learning how a helicopter works. They can develop geography proficiency as they read maps to plan a secret helicopter mission. Students can gain hands-on experience while they investigate the activities and perhaps not even realize they are learning.

            Many museums have responded to the needs of students and teachers by creating programs that incorporate STEAM - Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics. The Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art at Kansas State University is one museum that has successfully implemented STEAM Learning. In an email, Senior Educator Kathrine Walker Schlageck described the Beach Museum's programs. Schlageck said that the museum has included STEM for a long time by tying in math and science with their art collections as well as through critical thinking techniques such as Visual Thinking Strategies. She says that "with the new emphasis on 21st century skills, STEAM learning has made us increasingly popular with the schools." The museum has also collaborated with STEM-related departments on the campus of Kansas State University to create these types of programs. Pre-service teachers at the university are learning about the STEAM programs as a part of their Art for Elementary Education class and Schlageck regularly presents information on STEAM learning to local school districts. She believes that these programs are successful because many of the skills that can be developed while looking at, thinking about, and making art are highly interdisciplinary and involve creativity. (Kathrine Walker Schlageck, Personal Communication, December 2014).

            Museums are also contributing to cross-curricular learning without working with students or teachers in person. This can  be done by providing online lesson plans and other resources that can be used in classrooms. This is one effective way that museums can contribute to the educational goals of schools who may not be able to visit the museum due to time constraints, distance, or economic troubles. The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana is one museum that provides a variety of interdisciplinary online teaching resources. Learning about wars is usually a part of history classes, but the National WWII Museum proves that students can learn about math, English, geography, civics, and the arts while still covering information on the war. Teachers can download lesson plans such as "The ABC's of WWII" which is a cross-curricular art and language lesson. Math can be tied in as students create graphs to better understand data from the war. A portion of the museum's website is also dedicated to STEM. Teachers can download STEM resources to use in the classroom, or learn how to plan a field trip that includes robotics. When museums combine a variety of methods like the National WWII Museum has done, they are able to reach more students.

            These examples show us that cross-curricular education in museums can take many forms when museums work with schools. From this information on what others have tried, our local museums can take it one step further by working together to create cross-curricular learning opportunities that will benefit students and teachers in all subject-areas.

Cross-Curricular Opportunities for Detroit Museums

            A few well-known museums in Detroit are the Detroit Historical Museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Michigan Science Center. These three museums contain very different collections and areas of expertise and are in close proximity to one another, which makes them an ideal starting point.

            The Detroit Historical Museum contains exhibitions on Detroit history ranging from the automotive industry, to the underground railroad, and even local music history. They currently offer school groups educational opportunities such as tours, workshops, and storytelling programs that are based on history.

            The Detroit Institute of Arts holds one of the most prestigious collections of artwork in the United States. Their permanent collections includes works from artists such as Monet, Rembrandt, Van Gogh and many others. The exhibits contain arts from across the globe and some objects are hundreds of years old. The DIA invites schools to learn in the museum through themed tours and art-making workshops.

            The Michigan Science Center (formerly the Detroit Science Center) has 3 floors of hands-on, interactive science exhibits. Students can learn about many STEM concepts while interacting with the exhibits and the museum offers educational programs that complement the exhibits. School groups ages preschool through high school can participate in programs covering science topics such as forces, animal adaptations, and DNA.

            It is apparent that each one of these three museums has unique educational offerings that students and teachers can use to supplement classroom learning.  Teachers and students are able to gain valuable information and experiences from  visiting any one of these museums, but imagine if students could harness the powers of art, science, and history together to delve deeper into learning.

            While the development of such a program will take much time and effort, here is a simple example of what it might look like. It was recently reported that Detroit is the safest major city in the United States from natural disasters. Students can easily relate to this piece of news and it could be the basis of a cross-curricular program involving the three museums.

            First, students might visit the Michigan Science Center to view a planetarium show or IMAX movie about natural disasters. Then, they could participate in hands-on weather science experiments. Next, students could visit the Detroit Historical Museum to research weather and disaster information throughout the history of the city. Students would compile data into timelines or graphs which would combine math and history skills. Finally, students would take a trip to the DIA to view art related to Detroit and weather or natural disasters. To tie everything together, they would visit the art studio to create a project showing what they have learned. Projects might include paintings of natural disasters in Detroit, sculptures to show how buildings could be engineered to withstand disaster, a photography collection including images of Detroit manipulated in Photoshop to show natural disasters, or anything else that students decide to create.

            While participating in a program of this nature, local students would benefit from visiting the museums and learn how science, art, math, and history can be intertwined in their daily lives. Perhaps some students will find new career interests in meteorology, engineering, art, history, or museum work. As students participate in the programs and take their experiences out into the world the results could potentially reach far beyond the students themselves. The effect of this type of education was described in the Campaign for Learning Newsletter in 1999: "Learning is a process of active engagement with experience...Effective learning leads to change, development and the desire to learn more." (Campaign for Learning Newsletter 1999: 4)

            In addition to academic information, students have many opportunities for more informal lessons while visiting museums and participating in their programs. Learning appropriate ways to interact with different types of exhibits will help students when visiting museums on their own as adults. Interactions with various experts in the museum, as well as interacting with teachers and classmates in a new setting will also benefit social development. With hands-on, open-ended opportunities such as the "Detroit Natural Disaster" program described here, students with all different interests, abilities, and learning styles can learn in their own unique way - something that can be difficult in a traditional classroom. 

A few of the wonderful Detroit Museums that could help students become eager to learn!

            Integrating cultural institutions such as museums into school experiences would benefit the museums involved, students, teachers, and the community as a whole. Detroit is in a state of transition economically and politically - making now an ideal time to implement new learning opportunities that can continue to have an impact as today's youth reaches adulthood. This idea of museums and communities having a symbiotic relationship in education is not a new one. In a 1999 report by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, author David Anderson wrote: "Museums can only be successful if they also accept that communities are a resource as well as a target for education, and if communities become rooted in museums as well as museums in their communities. Empowering members of their community to work on behalf of the institution has been a decisive factor in the success of many of the best museum community education projects." (DCMS 1999) By creating partnerships between Detroit museums, schools, and other community members it will be possible to build a strong cross-curricular learning program.

            If the Detroit Historical Museum, Detroit Institute of Arts, and Michigan Science Center are able to build a successful cross-curricular partnership then it might be possible to add more of the local museums to the mix. Detroit Museums have much to offer to the community in terms of education, and in return the support of the community will be valuable to the museums. Eilean Hooper-Greenhill, a Museum Studies professor at the University of Leicester explains the importance of this kind of partnership: "Museums now depend on their audiences, and need to develop ever more sophisticated ways of understanding and providing for visitors' needs and desires." (Hooper-Greenhill 1999: xii) A program of this magnitude would indeed be complex and sophisticated and must be developed in a way the needs of teachers and learners are met.

Conclusion

            Many different museums across the United Kingdom and United States have succeeded in developing cross-curricular programs, but they typically do so independent from other museums. Detroit is in a good position to combine the forces of several museums to create programs that delve even deeper into cross-curricular learning than some of the other museums discussed here. There is much to be gained if a program of this kind is successful.

            Museums can provide unique learning opportunities using objects that students typically would not be exposed to in the classroom. Social interactions in the museum can stimulate new ideas and increased learning for students. Educational experiences in museums can support many types of learning styles, as well as learning audiences such as students, teachers, and adults. Meaningful experiences with cross-curricular learning can help shape students' future academic and work careers and improve our community in many ways.

Bibliography

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