Museums as Educational and Socio-cultural Curriculum

Patricia D. Ainsa
University of Texas at El Paso

Introduction: Children’s Museums, Museum Schools, and Museum Curriculum
      In 1975 there were approximately 38 children’s museums in the United States. Eighty new children’s museums opened between 1976 and 1990. Since 1990, an additional 100 have appeared (Association of Children’s Museums website, 2007).
     Children’s museums offer educational experiences for children. Yet, these are not museum schools. Museum schools are defined as a school resulting from a formal relationship between a school district and at least one museum. The museum attempts to integrate features and resources available through museums into K-12 education, (Phillips, 2005). Museum schools offer activities such as object creation, exhibit creation, and museum creation (King, 1998, p. iv). Museum-schools may be K-12 schools housed within museums or vice-versa. Some schools and museums are not located together, but have a relationship through their curriculum. An example school and museum that are collocated is the San Diego Children’s Museum. The Museum opened the Museum School with a charter from the San Diego Unified School District in September 1998 (San Diego Children’s Museum, 2007).

Museum Curriculum
     In general, museums tailor their materials to the local school curriculum, which is usually mandated by a state education agency. The curriculum is collaboratively designed by the teachers and the museum education staff in a museum school (Takahisa and Chaluisan, 1995). King (1998) studied four museum schools. He found that there was an emphasis on research apprenticeship, knowledge- building communities, and a constructivist approach to student learning. Teachers can use information and material in a museum to enhance or to develop new curriculum.

Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens
     The Centennial Museum and Gardens are part of the University of Texas at El Paso. The museum serves the bi-national community of the Chihuahuan Desert region. The Museum was established in 1936, and the Gardens were dedicated in 1999. The Museum's permanent exhibits focus on the natural and cultural history of the Chihuahuan Desert region, which is the largest desert in North America, extending from central New Mexico deep into Mexico. The extensive stored collections of the Centennial Museum are available for scholarly research. In the temporary galleries, the museum presents a wide range of exhibits on natural and human themes related to border life and culture. These exhibitions may be part of collaborations with other UTEP departments, with other El Paso museums, national museums such as the Smithsonian, or international agencies.

Early Childhood and Early Elementary Museum Curriculum
     A class of early childhood graduate student teachers chose to take on the challenge of making a museum display wing come alive experientially for school students in El Paso, Texas. They chose the archaeological exhibits in the Indigenous Tribes of Native Peoples wing to develop lessons due to the wide space for children near the display and the cultural relevance for the school students in the Southwest. The exhibits included displays of Pueblo and Mogollon materials. The ethnological exhibits feature such groups as the Navajo, Apache, and Tarahumara. The various Southwestern Native American groups are displayed along with other peoples for comparison. Archaeological materials recovered from Chihuahuan Desert sites are displayed. The hunting of wild game and the gathering of native plants for food and the indications of a more settled agricultural life is shown by the prized Mimbres pottery. The graduate students developed experiential curriculum that included the following.

• History
• Story/Literature
• Costume/Native Dress
• Artifacts/Tools
• Food/Drink
• Daily Activity
• Art (song, dance, poetry, theatre, etc.)
• Beliefs/Worship/Ritual (ceremony)

     The graduate student teachers were required to research history and archeology, develop curriculum, research or create art and music, incorporate literacy, and include social studies (citizenship). The museum provided much of the information.

Method:
     The graduate class of eighteen early childhood teachers and administrators collaborated to offer an early childhood museum curriculum experience to elementary level school children. The University of Texas at El Paso Centennial Museum hosted the grade two through grade four level children on four Saturdays of the last month of the semester. Eight classes of students and 12 teachers took advantage of the learning experience. The graduate class planned and assembled the experiences and materials. The class was evaluated by the graduate students, the elementary teachers, the students, and the museum director.
     Some of the examples of activities included crafts of the Native Americans of the Plains. Beaded medicine bags were made when beads were introduced by the Europeans.  Elementary students enjoyed making the beaded bags and discussing the types of plants used for medicine. There were also artistically beaded wands and prayer sticks, facilitating a story about rituals and worship. The children learned the Sun Greeting Ceremony to the Great Creator and made and wore ceremonial clothing. Tales of how the world came to be and the Mythical Coyote Powers fascinated the children. They learned about the Tesuque Rain Effigy, and the frogs, fish, and rattles to bring rain. Weaving baskets and sashes and creating sandstone molds for jewelry were popular activity choices. The Tarahumaran games of chance (gambling) and skill and foot races (the Tarahumarans can kick a ball for days) were fun for outdoor play. The ‘metate’ (seed grinding stone) and the sweet corn drink were used to reflect the process of preparing food in a society where there were no stores.
     The museum experience was evaluated and found to be valuable for all participants. Classroom teachers reaffirmed the value of curriculum learned as a result of museum holdings and research. The informal evaluations are discussed in the evaluation section.

Evaluation
     At the end of the El Paso Centennial Museum visit, the early childhood student participants and the parents who accompanied them on the field trip were asked to evaluate the experience.  The students and parents gave the museum curriculum visit excellent ratings.  The classroom teachers (graduate students enrolled in the course) were then asked to compare curriculum interaction in the museum with similar interaction in the classroom. Table 1 indicates their preferences.
(See Table 1)
     Further discussion indicated that the most popular activity lessons were those lessons that delved into the culture of the indigenous people of the area. Children were able to draw on similarities with the cultures of the people that the museum display depicted. The cultural understanding was far beyond that of the usual classroom curriculum designed for the indigenous cultures unit.
     The graduate student classroom teachers rated the experiential learning, and the research that the museum had done for the displays. They stated that using museum curriculum and research was more extensive than any research that they are able to do for their classroom lessons, due to time constraints. 

Conclusion and Recommendations
     With the success of children’s museums, museum schools, and museum curriculum to provide experiential learning in the schools, the following curriculum recommendations are offered:

• Field trips to the local museum should be a part of every child’s artistic, cultural, and educational experience.
• Museums should continue to provide grade-level specific curriculum to be used in a classroom for follow-up learning.
• Museum curriculum can be developed by classroom teachers and molded to fit the instructional objective of the lesson.
• Thoroughly researched displays and exhibits should continue to be used to provide materials to classroom teachers.
• .Museums should continue in this way to reach the public that they serve.

The excellent learning opportunities for the children are well worth the effort to develop curriculum using local museums. This concept can only help bring excellence in curriculum and education for children in early childhood and other grades.

References
Association of Children’s Museums website. Retrieved March 16, 2007 from
       http://www.childrensmuseums.org/programs/start.htm
Centennial Museum & Chihuahuan Desert Gardens Natural and Cultural History. University of Texas at El Paso (n.d.) Retrieved
     March 12, 2007, from http://museum.utep.edu/archaeology
King, K. (1998). Alternative educational systems: A multi-case study in museum schools. Doctoral dissertation, Indiana
     University, p. iv.
Phillips, M. (2005). Museum schools study. The Center for Informal Learning and Schools. Retrieved March 16, 2007
     from http://uhura.exploratorium.edu/cils/resource.php?resourceID=77
San Diego Children’s Museum. Retrieved March 12, 2007, from http://sdchildrensmuseum.org/index.pacq
Takahisa, S. (1991). A starting point for the future. The Journal of Museum Education, 16(3), 16-17.
Takahisa, S., & Chaluisan, R. (1995). New York City Museum School. Museum School Symposium: Beginning the conversation
     Barcelona, 1995, St. Paul, MN: Science Museum of Minnesota.

Table 1. Museum Interaction versus Classroom Curriculum – Teacher Preferences