ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Museums offer a literal and virtual bounty of resources for teachers who desire additional
CHAPTER 9
staff who can visit the classroom, send museum artifact kits and “museums in a box” to classrooms, and provide web-based resources and virtual galleries or field trips. These three resources-outreach programs, museum artifact kits, and virtual resourcescannot replace an on-site visit, but offer complementary and supplementary artifacts, staff, narratives, secondary sources, lesson plans, and more. They help teachers bring the disciplinary lenses used in museums, from historians and archaeologists to curators and historical interpreters, into the classroom. In this chapter we discuss each of the three museum resources, provide several exemplary models, and consider how these resources can be used to enhance student learning of history.
