Educator Programs
Explore webinars to discover tools and techniques for using digital museum resources in your classroom.
Cultivating Learning: Teaching With Objects
For the 2026-2027 Cultivating Learning series, Smithsonian educators share teaching techniques and resources to help students engage closely with objects to spark curiosity and discussion.
Teaching with objects encourages close looking, asking questions, and listening to multiple perspectives. These techniques can be applied to a range of content, including actual material objects and artworks, but also music, primary source documents, oral histories, data sets, and more.
Join us to explore strategies for using digital museum resources to support student learning for a wide range of content areas and grade levels. You’ll leave with a collection of techniques and ideas to help students think critically, appreciate others’ perspectives, and gain confidence to be engaged learners.
Hands-On Learning with the Smithsonian Toolkit and a High School Design Lab
Wednesday, September 23, 4:00 PM EST
Join the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology and a high school art teacher in Novato, CA, for a practical, hands-on guide to incorporating objects into any classroom.
Looking Closely: Identity and Belonging in Portraiture
Wednesday, October 21, 4:00 PM EST
In this workshop, participants engage in close looking using the Unveiling Stories thinking routine to explore Shimomura Crossing the Delaware by Roger Shimomura.
Inspiring Poetry Through Visual Art
Wednesday, November 18, 4:00 PM EST
Join the Smithsonian American Art Museum to experience how visual art can inspire multiple forms of poetry and build students’ understanding of literary devices.
LOOK, LISTEN, CONNECT: Integrating Arts with the Smithsonian
Wednesday, December 16, 4:00 PM EST
In this workshop, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings will demonstrate how to deepen student learning and engagement by integrating Smithsonian artwork, objects, and audio recordings into your lessons.
Cultivating Curiosity with Young Children Through Objects
Wednesday, January 20, 4:00 PM EST
Join the National Zoo’s Get a Head Start with the Smithsonian program to explore how hands-on experiences with historical, artistic, and everyday objects can spark young children’s curiosity and deepen their learning.
Zooming in on the Tools of Modern Astronomy
Wednesday, February 17, 4:00 PM EST
Join the Education team from the National Air and Space Museum to take a closer look at the tools of modern astronomy, zooming in on the small parts that have led to big headlines.
Exploring the Postal Service through Systems Thinking with Young Learners
Wednesday, March 17, 4:00 PM EST
How can a simple mailbox open the door to big ideas about community, communication, and systems? In this session led by the National Postal Museum, explore how to use a mailbox to introduce students to the postal service through the Parts, People, Interactions thinking routine.
Exploding Objects: Cellphones and Unseen Connections
Wednesday, April 21, 4:00 PM EST
Join Museum educators and experts from the National Museum of Natural History to discover how the full history of an object can be unpacked using an inquiry-based technique called exploding objects.
The Civil Rights Movement: The Power of Words in Shaping an Image and Legacy
Wednesday, May 19, 4:00 PM EST
Join an educator from the National Museum of African American History and Culture to explore the power of oratory to record and preserve important moments in our lives.
Learning with 3D Objects: Thinking Routines and Strategies for Dialogue and Historical Connections
Wednesday, June 16, 4:00 PM EST
Join museum educators in a guided close-looking activity and discussion using the Smithsonian's 3D viewing platform, Voyager. Discover how incorporating 3D scans and prints of objects paired with thinking routine resources can guide nuanced exploration and historical connections.
Learn More
Explore our vast library of archived webinars to discover even more tools for how to use digital museum resources for learning.
Cultivating Learning: Digital Museum Resources and the Smithsonian Learning Lab
In this professional development series, join educators as they model teaching techniques for using digital museum resources to support student learning in diverse learning environments. You’ll learn new methods to help students think critically, recognize their own value, appreciate others’ perspectives, and gain confidence to be engaged, passionate learners.
Easy PZ: How to Engage Your Students with Project Zero Thinking Routines
In these 30 minute webinars, classroom and museum educators model how to facilitate easy-to-use Project Zero Thinking Routines to develop students' skills.
