Participants in this program join Acadia National Park staff for the Schoodic Education Adventure (SEA). Educators bring their 4th through 8th grade students to this three- or four-day residential program at the Schoodic Education and Research Center in Winter Harbor, Maine.

Curriculum-based classroom activities and hands-on field experience offer an invaluable learning experience in a unique setting. Situated on the rugged coast of Maine, the campus is accessible to shoreline, wetland, and forest ecosystems and provides a rich educational environment for students.

The SEA program is aligned with Maine State Learning Results and integrated across the curriculum. Opportunities for study include math, social studies, language arts, physical education, science, technology, health, and art. The program combines curriculum-based classroom activities
and hands-on field experience taught by both park rangers and teachers.

To attend the Schoodic Education Adventure, teachers can apply as early as the preceding fall, but no later than May in the spring before they plan to come. The program is offered in the fall from mid-September to mid-November.

Participants in this course will discover American Indian history in the United States from the earliest evidence of human habitation through first contact with Europeans, conflicts in the West, World War II and other key events in 20th-century U.S. history, the American Indian rights movement, and into the present day.

Archaeological finds, traditional stories, the writings of early European explorers, government documents and treaties, oral histories, photographs, the arts, newspaper articles, and more will enrich exploration of key issues in Native American history nationwide.

The course will proceed chronologically. Within each topical module participants will have the opportunity to choose from several different geographically grouped assignments, allowing them to customize their own learning experience based on their interests, the demands of the curriculum, and their own priorities for teaching American Indian history.

For example, in any given unit, they may choose to focus on the Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, the Great Plains, the Northeast, or the Southeast. They may either follow one geographical track throughout the course or mix up their selections to allow for a broader view of American Indian history.

Too often, students view Civil Rights in isolation—they do not understand the rich historical background of African American history or the legacies of the movement in the more recent past. They often know some of the major civil rights figures like Martin Luther King, Jr. or Rosa Parks, but they do not grasp the complexities of civil rights leadership, or the experience of the movement's foot soldiers—the students in SNCC, the freedom riders, or the everyday people who marched, boycotted, protested, and volunteered to make the movement happen. This course will try to explore the movement from all of these perspectives using, where possible, firsthand accounts from the people who lived this important history.

The instructor will assume that the main historical outlines of the movement are familiar to K–12 teachers—instead of recounting that basic history, participants will spend much of the time delving into lesser-studied events of the movement and the primary sources that will allow them to explore their own ideas about the movement and its meanings in detail.

This course will allow for the opportunity for deep historical analysis and interpretation using primary sources. The best way to learn history is by doing history. Participants will tackle documents, images, newspaper accounts, artistic expressions, film, and other sources. By doing so, they will develop their own arguments and ideas about the movement, and help future students do the same. Many of the resources participants will use have been recently added to the internet and they should be exciting additions to the course, and to historical scholarship more broadly. As participants mine these sources, they will hopefully enjoy the historical process and also get some great ideas for classroom activities for their students.

The instructor has selected websites and multimedia resources that will give participating teachers access to literally thousands of documents including newspaper accounts, oral history interviews, government documents, photographs, works of art, film clips, and more. Participants will have the opportunity to analyze these sources through engaging activities to create a lesson plan for classroom use; to receive individualized, constructive feedback and answers to content-oriented questions from a well-versed instructor; and to join other teachers from across the state in lively online discussions throughout the course.

Participants in this online course will discover the wealth of web-based primary research and active learning resources available to social studies teachers of all grade levels. They will explore an array of primary and secondary resources including collections of original documents, vast reservoirs of secondary historical information, and online resources designed to support social studies teachers in curriculum development. They will consider effective research strategies and engage in critical analysis of web resources. In addition, they will learn to develop a personal collection of web-based resources for curricular use, as well as create preliminary plans to enhance a curriculum unit.

The Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center is offering a one-day training seminar to examine how educators can use collections to enrich classroom experience. Young children are natural-born collectors. Toys, dolls, coins, or nature's treasures such as rocks and shells appeal to young children and help them understand the world around them. Educators can develop this innate curiosity by creating collections and exhibits that combine literature, art, and objects to introduce children to the magic of museums. Through hands-on experiences and museum visits, this one-day seminar will show educators how to use collections to help children develop skills to sort, classify, observe, and analyze. Participants will learn to enhance their teaching by developing collections that incorporate math, science, history, and language arts.

The Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center is offering an innovative training program for museum professionals and early childhood educators interested in using objects to teach young children. Participants will learn how a host of museum objects—including paintings, sculptures, an African headrest, and an old-time chestnut roaster—can help children, as young as two or three, understand their world. The program, featuring hands-on exercises with museum objects, lectures, discussions, and gallery experiences, is designed to help museum educators forge more creative encounters with young museum-goers, and to introduce early childhood educators to the magic of museums. Participants will be encouraged to think expansively about using children's literature, art, and objects to create explorations of thematic topics. By tapping resources in their own communities—resources such as objects in local museums and community centers, statues, public art, bridges, buildings, and more, participants learn to bring the world of museums to young children in their communities.

The Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center offers a morning seminar to examine how educators can enrich infant and toddler programs with art and objects. Very young children thrive in an environment that is rich in exposure to everyday objects, stories, and visual images. Age-appropriate books, art prints and objects can appeal to infants and toddlers and help them to understand the world around them. Participants in this seminar will learn how to develop this innate curiosity by creating an environment that supports arts-rich learning in the classroom as they nurture the growth of each child. They will learn how to choose exhibits, have successful outings, and build a classroom community that parents, teachers, and children will love.

Google Earth lets students see the world around them in brand-new ways: travel to the Great Pyramids, analyze live current events, compare before and after images of deforestation, and integrate literature and social studies. But how best can teachers use it to improve learning? This workshop spends a day adapting existing Google Earth tours and creating new ones.