Interested in designing rewarding assignments for students that incorporate museum digital content, while developing written communication skills, collaboration, and technology literacy? This workshop introduces participants to Digital Storytelling--a high-impact pedagogy embraced by artists, activists, and educators worldwide--with the support of content from the Smithsonian’s free online Learning Lab platform. Participants will analyze examples and create their own digital stories to inform applications for their classrooms. Examples shown come from college classrooms, but digital storytelling is broadly applicable across disciplines and grade levels.  Pre-session assignment will be provided to ensure rich conversation and a rewarding experience. Bring a laptop for an interactive work session.

How can art and artifacts inspire students to make sense of history and cross-cultural exchange? Join the National Museum of Asian Art in this interactive program that explores how religious ideas were shared in cultures along the Silk Roads and how art objects are evidence of cultural diffusion. Engage in object inquiry strategies that encourage observing, reasoning, and visible thinking. Practice Project Zero thinking routines to make empathetic connections to present-day migration and cultural interactions. Leave with digital resources to enhance your teaching with National Museum of Asian Art collections.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Teaching and Learning team empowers educators to teach with diverse narratives of history through stories and objects of the African American experience that illuminate critical questions in society and connect the past with our present.  In this facilitated session, museum educators will provide resources, historical examples and model strategies for integrating the African American experience into the classroom.

How do scientists use a range of tools to create a picture of biodiversity?  Go behind-the-scenes to find out with the National Museum of Natural History.  Explore marine collections and scientific laboratories where biodiversity research is conducted in the exciting new field of eDNA, the study of genetic material that organisms leave behind in their environment.  You will also experience an interactive classroom activity that helps students better understand the foundations of DNA research and how investigations into local ecosystems can feed into broader research while inspiring global change.

Join Keara Teeter, Meisel Conservator of Modern American Paintings at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) to explore the conservation work that went into preparing SAAM's "Fighters for Freedom: William H. Johnson Picturing Justice" exhibition.  You will learn how conservators use the combination of studio art, science and art history to preserve cultural heritage, how we can use art and science to learn about the past, and how art continues to inspire future generations.

Go behind the scenes at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage to explore two new interdisciplinary projects that promote inclusive storytelling in the classroom.  Smithsonian Folkways Learning Pathways is a dynamic series of digital education resources using music tracks from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings to ensure more students can see themselves reflected in K-12 curriculum materials. Discover how the “Youth and the Future of Culture” program at the 2025 Smithsonian Folklife Festival will address youth learning, with students in the DC area participating in peer-to-peer research while exploring who they are in the present, with an eye toward a shared future.

The Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation unveiled its “Change YOUR Game”/ “Cambia Tu Juego” exhibition in March 2024. The exhibition introduces the central role of inventors, inventions, and technology in the history of sports to empower diverse visitors to identify themselves as problem solvers. In this session, panelists will articulate how the exhibit and its activities are designed to provide learners of all ages, backgrounds, and interests the opportunity to practice inventive skills and habits of mind, such as collaboration, creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking, as tools to explore and develop their inventive identity.