How can we inspire the next generation of environmental stewards? Join Smithsonian Gardens for special tour of three gardens featured in our campus-wide exhibition, Growing Tomorrow to find out. Experience the way gardens can lift our spirits in the Mary Livingston Ripley Garden, consider how nature can spark innovation in the Kathrine Dulin Folger Rose Garden, and explore personal connections to gardens past and present in the Enid A. Haupt Garden. The session will conclude with interdisciplinary garden-themed activities that you can replicate with your students that center gardens as civic spaces where the arts, sciences, and humanities meet.

Where To Meet:

Meet between 9:45 am - 10:00 am outside the north entrance of the Arts and Industries Building (AIB) on Jefferson Drive. The group will gather by the benches in the Kathrine Dulin Folger Rose Garden, to the right of the entrance to AIB. Session programming takes place from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm.

Join us for an exclusive one-hour experience in the Smithsonian Castle to view and interact with American Aspirations in an educator-facilitated session. Open for only a few weeks in honor of America's 250th, this special exhibit brings together some of the Smithsonian's most treasured objects for the first time, inviting visitors to explore how founding ideals have been reinterpreted across generations. This session, featuring fast-paced, interactive storytelling methods, will invite participants to explore historical objects, personal experiences, local community stories, and national themes connected to American democracy. It will culminate in small-group synthesis connecting insights to broader civic themes and the Democracy in Dialogue Virtual Exchange. Leave with tools to analyze objects through reflective prompts, construct collaborative narratives, engage in civil discourse, and apply storytelling strategies to their own local contexts.

This two-part cooperative workshop for educators blends gallery and classroom learning. In Part 1, facilitators model strategies for analyzing material and visual culture alongside structures for rich discussion. In Part 2, participants build on these skills to develop research questions from multiple perspectives. Participants will leave with at least one new thinking routine for analyzing material and visual culture, a new discussion structure, an understanding of closed versus open questions, and at least one summative or formative assessment method — practical tools ready to use with learners in any setting.

Where To Meet:

Meet between 1:15 pm - 1:30 pm in the National Museum of American History's Constitution Avenue lobby just after going through security. Session programming takes place from 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm. 

The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s current exhibition, Mammoth, by artist Nick Cave, features fanciful artworks that combine sculpture, performance, and fashion. Together these objects illuminate both personal and universal narratives about the American Experience. Where can you find yourself in the artwork? Which objects spark memories for you? Which objects are you most curious about? Let’s examine contemporary art that places thrifted trinkets and symbols of Americana within our current national discourse. Using the Mammoth Field Guide, we’ll navigate through the meticulously constructed world of Nick Cave to uncover stories from the past and make plans for our shared future.

Where To Meet:

Meet in the G Street lobby of the Smithsonian American Art Museum between 9:15 am - 9:30 am. Session programming takes place from 9:30 am - 11:30 am.

Civics education starts early at the National Portrait Gallery! In this session, explore how portraiture, storytelling, and creativity can introduce PreK and elementary-aged students to community, governance, and civic voice. Participants will practice close-looking strategies that build visual literacy, and leave with replicable artmaking and writing activities aligned to Common Core ELA and National Core Arts Standards. Whether you teach in a classroom, museum, or elsewhere, these frameworks will equip educators anywhere to engage early learners with civics through art, history, and biography. Leave with concrete tools and strategies you can implement with your students right away.

Where To Meet:

Meet in the G Street lobby of the National Portrait Gallery between 9:45 am - 10:00 am. Session programming takes place from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm.

How can storytelling move educators from empathy to meaningful civic action? In this hands-on workshop from the Courage Museum, participants engage with a short film from the Empathy Mirrors exhibit and use design and improvement tools to explore the potential root causes and systems shaping the story. Participants leave with practical strategies for helping students analyze complex social challenges, strengthen empathy, and translate insight into action in classrooms, libraries, and museums.

Where To Meet:

Meet between 9:45 am - 10:00 am in the West Lobby of the Capital Gallery Building. Session programming takes place from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm.

Join the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC) for a hands-on tour and workshop exploring the importance of object-based learning, primary sources, and documenting local stories within our national history. At the center of this session is the new exhibition How Can You Forget Me: Filipino American Stories, which uncovers the overlooked history of a trailblazing Filipino community in Stockton, California from the 1910s to the 1970s through twenty-six steamer trunks found in 2005, three of which are on display in the gallery. Leave with greater confidence incorporating AANHPI histories and object-based primary sources into your classroom.

Where To Meet:

Meet between 10:15 am - 10:30 am in the National Museum of American History's Constitution Avenue lobby just after going through security. Session programming takes place from 10:30 pm - 12:30 pm.

Rooted in community-driven practice, the Anacostia Community Museum celebrates the local record-keepers, collectors, and storytellers whose contributions shaped America's historical narrative. The museum continues this work through its newest exhibition, "We Make History," which explores how primary documents and artifacts illuminate the critical role everyday people play in building a thriving democracy. As the nation marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, this work extends into the museum's Growing Community program, exploring how gardens reconnect us to the land, our cultural legacies, and one another. Leave inspired to encourage your students to keep and share their stories, because history starts at the ground level.

Where To Meet:

Meet right outside MLK Library around 9:15 AM for a shuttle pickup, leaving promptly at 9:30 AM. Enjoy the experience from 10:00 AM–12:00 PM, then the return shuttle will depart back to MLK Library at 12:15 PM.

What — and who — do we choose to elevate, and what do these choices say about who we are? In this immersive workshop, participants will use close-looking and perspective-taking Thinking Routines to examine two works of monumental art at the National Museum of Asian Art: Public Figures by Do Ho Suh and Vishnu's Cosmic Ocean. By examining examples of classroom application and student work, participants will leave with practical, replicable strategies for helping students anywhere explore how civic and sacred monuments shape collective memory and responsibility.

Where To Meet:

Meet in the lobby of Freer Gallery of Art between 10:00 am - 10:15 am. Session programming takes place from 10:15 am - 12:15 pm. Use the National Mall entrance of the Freer Gallery of Art (West Building) and meet in the lobby. The approximate GPS address is 1103 Jefferson Drive SW.

Explore the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino's new exhibition, ¡Puro Ritmo! The Musical Journey of Salsa, which traces salsa's evolution from its Afro-Cuban roots to its rise as a cornerstone of American music alongside jazz and rock 'n' roll. In this session, participants will take a guided tour and engage in a hands-on object biography activity, learning to narrate an object's life story, historical context, and significance as a primary source. Leave with a replicable classroom strategy that deepens students' ability to analyze primary sources by uncovering the history, ownership, and cultural significance behind everyday objects.

Where To Meet:

Meet between 1:15 pm - 1:30 pm in the National Museum of American History's Constitution Avenue lobby just after going through security. Session programming takes place from 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm. Please note: the National Museum of the American Latino's Molina Family Latino Gallery is located on the 1st Floor East inside the National  Museum of American History.

Tour two brand new exhibits with the staff who developed them! In Bison Standing Strong, discover how the exhibit highlights the story of America's national mammal, from its deep ties to Indigenous nations through near extinction and eventual resurgence. In From These Lands, explore how specimens and cultural items representing all 50 states, D.C., and U.S. territories showcase connections between people, places, and the natural world. Participants will engage with object-focused activities and digital interactives aligned with each exhibit, walking away with ready-to-use strategies for discussing 250th anniversary themes in their own classrooms.

How can educators equip students to move beyond learning history to actively shaping a more just future? Join experts from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History to explore how object-based learning can deepen student engagement with the Civil Rights Movement. Presenters will discuss strategies for integrating primary sources and material culture into classroom instruction using the museum's online collections database. Through case studies and practical examples, participants will examine how historical objects can serve as entry points for critical thinking, civic engagement, and student-driven inquiry, leaving with concrete tools to connect past struggles for justice with contemporary issues and their own roles as informed citizens.

Where To Meet:

Meet between 10:15 am - 10:30 am in the National Museum of American History's Constitution Avenue lobby just after going through security. Session programming takes place from 10:30 pm - 12:30 pm.