1.
The 7 th Grade Museum
Of Exploration Encounter and
Exchange
Renée Charity Price
St. Catherine’s School
Richmond, Virginia

2.
Who We Are
 7th Grade students at St. Catherine’s School
 Independent PK-12 girls’ school
 Located in Richmond, Virginia
 120 year history of educating girls mind, body,
and spirit
 www.st.catherines.org

3.
What We Did
 Created a course entitled: Africa, the Americas,
and Europe: An Exchange
 Replaced a course that examined European
Renaissance history from Western perspectives
to provide a more global perspective
 New course introduces regions and peoples
before, during, and after the explosion of
exploration that occurred beginning in the
1400s

4.
What We Did
 We introduced a student created museum as
the capstone project for their year long study of
civilizations such as the empires of Ghana,
Mali, Kongo Kingdom, Great Zimbabwe,
Aztecs, and Incas.

5.
Capstone Project
• Aztec
Americas • Inca
• Ghana
Africa • Mali
• Medieval
Europe • Renaissance

6.
Foundations of the Course
 We grounded the course in essential questions AND
eight lenses through which to analyze world history.
We apply these to the civilizations we examine using
primary and secondary sources, a text, and other
materials to form a knowledge base from which to
conduct further research.
 All year long, students think about the essential
questions while wrestling with the course material.
They even come up with their own questions along the
way. During our class activities, projects, and writing
assignments, students learn to think critically about the
specific historical events, but also analytically across
time periods and regions.

7.
Foundations of the Course
Essential Questions
The Eight Lenses
Historical Content

8.
Sample Essential Questions
 How am I connected to these people/their stories?
 How do we really know what happened in the past?
 To what extent is history up to interpretation and
influenced by who is telling the story?
 What should we do when sources clash or disagree?
 What causes things to change or stay the same?
 How do cultures build upon the achievements of other
peoples?

9.
The Eight Lenses
Religion Population
Government
Geography
& Culture
Trade and
Conflict
Economics
Environment
Science and and Natural
Technology Resource
Management

10.
The Eight Lenses
 1) Population: Population is all about people. How many people are there in a certain
society? Is the population increasing or decreasing? Are the people moving from one
place to another or are they staying in the same place? Why?
 2) The Environment & Natural Resource Management: Natural resources include parts
of the environment, such as rocks and minerals, timber, plants, animals, water, and
fertile soil, which can be used by people for some type of benefit. Resource management
refers to how people use those natural resources. Are there enough natural resources to
provide food, water, and shelter to people? Do the people overuse the natural resources
or do they underuse them? What are the effects of overuse on the environment? Does
overuse change or hurt the environment and the people living in it?
 3) Trade & Economics: This lens refers to the exchange of goods and services. Do people
use money to pay each other? What do they buy? Why do they buy it? What do they
produce? How? Do they trade with other groups of people? How does this affect their
culture and way of life?
 4) Geography: By geography, we mean where in the world people are physically located.
What are the climate and terrain like? What is the physical landscape? How does the
landscape affect culture and the way people live?

11.
The Eight Lenses
 5) Science & Technology: With this lens, students should consider scientific
advancements made by different societies and how those advancements affect life on a
daily basis. What tools do people use? What scientific knowledge do they have? Do
science and technology make life better or worse?
 6) Conflict: Conflict refers to disagreements within societies and between societies, often
resulting in physical violence, such as war, or physical separation. What role does
conflict play in different societies? What disagreements exist within a society and what
disagreements exist with other neighboring or invading societies? What is the outcome
of conflict?
 7) Government & Culture: Government refers to how communities are organized and
controlled. Is there a king? If so, where does he/she get his/her power? Or is there an
elected leader? Are there laws or rules to live by? What are the cultural similarities and
differences between societies? What languages do people speak? How do they express
themselves in art, music, and dance? What are their marriage and family customs?
 8) Religion: Religion means the belief in and worship of a superhuman power, such as
one god or multiple gods. Religion usually includes a system of faith and worship. With
each society that we study, we will look at different belief systems. How is religion
practiced? What god or gods are worshiped? How does religion reflect the culture?

12.
The Museum Process
 After several months of foundational studies,
we individually guided students through the
entire museum creations process- from
understanding the “Big Idea” behind the
museum, to identifying a research topic,
finding sources, drafting text, creating visual
and experiential learning stations, and opening
the exhibits to the community.

13.
The Museum Process
In the Spring, students are introduced to the Museum’s big idea
statement. It is essentially a summary of our entire year of studies
up until that point in the year.
THE BIG IDEA:
The Age of Exploration has changed world history. Ever since
first contact, civilizations in the Americas, Africa, and Europe have
exchanged elements of their cultures. Each region was forever
changed by exploration and encounter in both positive and
devastating ways.
The 7th grade will create a museum that examines these
civilizations before contact, their encounters, and the legacy of their
exchanges with each other.

14.
The Students’ Task
 Role: You are a museum assistant! You are in charge of selecting a
topic, conducting research, and creating an exhibit related to the
BIG IDEA.
 Audience: Museum goers will include students, parents and
teachers.
 Format: Your exhibit will include written museum text and a
hands-on or interactive component that teaches more about your
topic.
 Topic: The topic must be directly related to the BIG IDEA. You
can select from one of the many ideas on the project idea sheet, or
you can propose your own topic. Select a project that appeals to
your interests.

15.
Choosing a Topic
 Using the BIG IDEA framework,
students select a topic relating to any
of the regions or civilizations we
have studied throughout the year.
They must identify a research
question and determine the lenses
they will apply during the analysis.

16.
The Museum Process
• Students may propose their own topic idea or choose from a list
Identify a
topic
of pre-generated ideas
• Locate print and text sources
Research • Read, read, read—and take notes
• Outline the presentation
Write Text • Students submit multiple drafts of text
Create
• Visual, audio, and/or experiential learning stations
Exhibit
• Museum opens May 2012!
Share

17.
Visit
 Each year we visit a
professional museum, and
then we think critically to
analyze its effective and
ineffective aspects. This
helps students understand
the task before them.

18.
Research
 Students use extensive
library resources including
online encyclopedias,
databases such as ABC-
CLIO, books, atlases, etc.

19.
Collaborate
 Students collaborate and
document their research
using NoodleTools, an
online research support
software.

20.
Write
Students work with both their
history and English teachers to
learn how to write clearly and
succinctly for a museum
audience.

21.
Create
 Students plan, design, and
build their exhibits.

22.
Opening Day!
 After weeks of hard work,
students guide parents,
other students, faculty, and
community members
through their exhibits. In
the picture, This students’
exhibit allowed visitors to
discover advances in
medicine during the
Renaissance in Europe.

23.
Sample Exhibit
 Student project detailing
the impact of sugarcane
production and trade
from multiple
perspectives.
 She created a multimedia
presentation and visual
diagram to show the
impact of the production
and trade of this crop.

24.
Sample Exhibit
 A project on life on a
slave ship during the
middle passage
allowed visitors to read
informative text and
view a detailed model
to help imagine its
horrors.

25.
Sample Exhibit
 A student project that
explored the historical
roots and present day
tradition of the Afro-
Caribbean musical
forms Bomba y Plena.
 She created
informational text and
created a listening
station of videos and
music samples.

26.
Sample Exhibit
 A student project that
detailed the history
and cultivation of the
potato and the tomato.
She highlighted the
exchange of these
important food crops
during the age of
exploration.

27.
Detailed Sample Exhibit
A sample project, focused in West Africa, introduced visitors to
the Empire of Ghana’s participation in a gold-salt trade network.
Her exhibit writing focused on the following topics:
 HOW DID GHANA’S WEALTH AND ADVANCEMENTS
FLOURISH WITH THE TRADE?
 GOLD MINES IN WANGARA: WHAT WERE SO IMPORTANT
ABOUT THE WANGARAN GOLD MINES?
 SALT MINES IN TAGHAZA: HOW WAS SALT CULTIVATED IN
THESE TIMES?
 SILENT BARTARING: HOW DID THE SILENT BARTARING
PROCESS WORK?

28.
Detailed Sample Exhibit
 The student then created an illustrated digital children’s
book featuring a young Arab trader making the journey
across the Sahara in order to teach the facts about the gold
salt trade that she uncovered during her research.
 Museum visitors learned how Ghana’s empire benefitted
from its location near key rivers and trade routes and
capitalized on their geographic position between the
locations of the desired gold and salt.

29.
Detailed Sample Exhibit
 A student project focused on the life and travels of Ibn
Battuta described the life and journey of the north African
explorer and scholar. Her exhibit focused on the following
topics:
 THE LIFE AND TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA
 THE RIHLA (Ibn Battuta’s account of his travels)
 THE IMPACT OF IBN BATTUTA’S WORK ON OUR
UNDERSTANDING OF THE EMPIRE OF MALI

30.
Detailed Sample Exhibit
 The student recreated an excerpt from Ibn Battuta’s account
of his travels that focused on the months he spent traveling
and living in the empire of Mali.
 She provided her own annotations in response to the
observations he made there, from his accounts of court life,
to Ibn Battuta’s positive and negative judgments on the
practice of Islam by the Malian people.

31.
Evaluation and Reflection
 Students are evaluated formally and
informally throughout the entire process
on research process, writing process,
collaboration & creativity.

32.
Museum Project Benefits
Interdisciplinary
Learning
Student Choice
Critical Thinking

33.
In a Student’s Own Words
“I used to think that history consisted of memorizing facts, and I
found it boring. But after taking your class, I’ve realized that history
can be more than that. History can be analyzing actions and learning
from them. History can be studying the choices of past groups or
individuals and seeing how those choices affect the world. It can be
realizing that every action has a ripple effect, and that a person across
the world from another person can determine their fate. Tying all this
together, I think the main lesson I have learned from you is that
everything is interconnected, and everything has cause and effect…
You taught me that anything can be easy if you start with a strong
base and build upwards from there. In this case, the base was strong
sources, but this could also apply to other situations. I can use this
information not only to help me complete school projects, but also to
help me complete any challenges I face in life.”
-Excerpt from a thank you letter from a current 8th grade student

34.
Works Cited
D’Acquisto, Linda. Learning on Display: Student-Created Museums
That Build Understanding. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. 2006.
Wiggins, Grant P., and Jay McTighe. Understanding by Design.
Alexandria, VA: ASCD. 2005.