University of Minnesota
Beautiful Brain: Step Inside the Brain
Before digital microscopes, scientists hired artists to draw the things visible in the microscope. Through training in neuroscience and art, Cajal revolutionized the way we view the beautiful brain. The third lesson in a series of four...
Curated OER
Looking at Portraits: Literary Monuments
Examine artwork, research literature, and create art pieces for a monument to a literary figure. Young scholars analyze the sculpture Model for a Monument to Alexandre Dumas père and compare it to other well-known monuments. They...
Museum of Disability
Taking Down Syndrome to School
Teach your class about the ways they can befriend and understand people who are different from them with a reading comprehension instructional activity. As youngsters read Taking Down Syndrome to School by Jenna Glatzer,...
Macmillan Education
Happy 40th Birthday Brown Bear
What do you see? Wish a happy birthday to Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle's Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? The lesson includes six extension activities for the books and its companion stories, including a maze and...
Art Institute of Chicago
Color Combinations
Explore color through an examination of pointillism and light. Class members view Georges Seraut's famous painting on a computer, zooming in and out to see the details and effects of the technique. They then cover how light and color are...
Museum of Tolerance
And Justice for All? Slavery Not Just in the Past
Slavery in India, Sudan, and Mauritania? What about in the United States? Groups research modern slavery in these four countries, collecting factual evidence (What), determine their feelings about this evidence (So what),...
Reed Novel Studies
A Single Shard: Novel Study
Fulfilling a dream requires a lot of hard work. A study guide for the novel A Single Shard shares the dream of a young Korean orphan. As readers work through the guide, they answer comprehension questions about Tree-ear and the...
Roald Dahl
The Twits - The Furniture Goes Up
Work gets done faster when people work as a team. The ninth installment of an 11-lesson unit designed to accompany The Twits by Roald Dahl combines character education with research skills and creative writing activities. The lesson ends...
Curated OER
Transportation Museum
Learners develop and organize their own transportation museum in the classroom. They brainstorm a list of vehicles and bring in models to display or draw a picture to display.
Curated OER
Body Language: How To Talk To Students About Nudity in Art
Students explore nudity in art in musweum and classroom settings. Student's age, culture, comfort level and parental reactions are considered in the presentation of these two lessons of this unit.
Curated OER
Visual Art and Music
Students examine how pop art compliments music. In this arts lesson, students explore the elements of pop art and replicate those elements in their own piece of art.
J. Paul Getty Trust
Shaping Ideas: Symbolism in Sculpture—Lesson 3
The final session in a sequential, three-lesson sculpture study designed by the education staff of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has class members using the criterial they developed to critique each others' symbolic sculptures.
J. Paul Getty Trust
Still-Life Painting: Arranging Nature—Lesson 1
Art learners examine still-life arrangement images and respond to a series of prompts. In a whole-class discussion, pupils list elements and qualities that still-life paintings can have. After instructors create an arrangement and model...
J. Paul Getty Trust
Exhibiting Common Threads
Artists working in different media often explore the same themes—to model how these same themes weave their way through different forms of artistic expression, scholars analyze images by Dorothea Lange, identifying key themes in her...
Curated OER
Signs and Symbols
Sixth graders carefully analyze a triptych of the nativity, paying close attention to the lines, shapes and symbols included in the artwork. They explore the role of the Catholic church in society at the time the piece was created and...
National Woman's History Museum
Martha Hughes Cannon: Doctor, Wife, Mother, Senator
Each state is entitled to two statues in the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, D.C. After reading about Utah's debate over whether or not Martha Hughes Cannon should be represented by one of their statues, individuals...
Curated OER
When Art Conveys a Political Message
Twelfth graders learn art is an effective way to convey a political message. They learn how political messages are created to convey a message. They analyze a piece of artwork and then write a short paragraph from the point of view of...
Curated OER
Classifying Plants and Insects
Art and science come together in a instructional activity based on Flower Still Life by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder. Learners classify plants and insects in the painting by color, leaf shape, size, reproduction,...
Curated OER
Combating Corrosion
Study corrosion on bronze statues with a hands-on lesson. As pupils place a penny in water with salt, they observe the changes in the penny throughout a period of a week. They then analyze the pre-conservation and the...
Curated OER
What is a Museum? The Musee' d'Orsay
Students read paragraphs and study pictures to learn about museums and in particular the Musee' d'Orsay. In this museum study instructional activity, students study the range of activities found in a museum and the characteristics common...
Curated OER
Visit to Ackland Art Museum (African Masks Exhibit)
Second graders observe and describe the similarities and differences in the African Mask exhibit at the Ackland Art Museum. They use describing words to express the feelings of the masks.
Curated OER
Native Americans - Searching for Knowledge and Understanding
What do you know about American Indians? Upper graders compose an informational essay based on the research they conduct. They choose a Native American group to study and, using the provided list of web links, gather information and...
Curated OER
AIDS, HIV and other Microbe Matters
This series of lessons contains sensitive material. Please review to ensure that the content is suitable for your class. It begins by discussing what microbes are. Scholars are then asked to review a few online resources and answer...
Curated OER
High-end/Low-end: Exploring Price and Value in Design
Students analyze elements of design and compare/contrast elements of price and design. In this design lesson plan, students consider the differences between high-end and low-end design. After completing an analysis of design in small...