Hands-on lesson plans in art can enrich the teaching of history, mathematics, or language arts. Teachers can create a design for a new coin, a portrait relief, or a figure in the round, and then teach their own students how art plays a part in portraying history, building national pride, and celebrating our heritage. Through firsthand artistic process, teachers and students form a personal connection to concepts, people, and events in history. The workshop will begin with a discussion and an introduction to the sculpture of Augustus Saint-Gaudens and the sculpture process, with an emphasis on the design of coinage. Participants will then proceed to the studio area to begin work. There will be approximately 2 ½ hours of studio time, with an optional viewing of the film, "The Medal Maker: Master Sculptor Laura Gardin Fraser." The film details the complete process of medallic art and can be used in the classroom as a pre- or post-lesson to a class visit to Saint-Gaudens. The workshop will include small group discussions focused on integration of the sculpture process into your current curriculum and the state standards addressed by including sculpture in your lesson plans.

The third in this series of workshops featuring different areas of the permanent collection focuses on images of the West. Depictions of pioneers, Native Americans, and western scenes are used to enhance your curriculum. Landscapes, history paintings, and portraiture are featured.

Explore the wide range of National Park Service resources available to teachers across the U.S. Visit an offshore island and learn how early artists, Native Americans, and coastal environments can intersect in your classroom. Develop activities in multiple subjects to take back to your classroom and interact with scientists studying Maine’s unique environment.

This place-based, interdisciplinary workshop uses Henry David Thoreau’s ethic and his experience at Walden Woods as a model, and features a daily mix of lectures, field trips, readings, discussions and reflection time. The participants encounter speakers from different fields with expertise in the areas of natural history, writing, literary analysis, history, and the environment.

The workshop features Dr. Harvey Klehr of Emory University as the keynote speaker and offers sessions on television, toys, fashion, music, art, and literature of the Cold War era.

This two-and-a-half day workshop will provide a varied program of lectures, demonstrations, collaborative work, and analysis of documents and works of art to introduce teachers to the holdings of the National Archives and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Workshop attendees will participate in and develop classroom activities that utilize both visual images and primary source documents as teaching tools in ways that sharpen students’ skills and enthusiasm for history, social studies, and the humanities. The content focus will be on Westward Expansion and the Civil War.

"Using primary sources and artifacts in the classroom to explore stories from the past is an excellent way, not only to study history, but to improve oral language development which in turn can enhance students' reading and writing skills. In this hands-on session, participants will analyze reproduction artifacts, including objects, primary documents, images, political cartoons, and more, to learn methods and criteria for selecting teachable primary sources for their classroom. Participants will learn how to analyze these materials and activities to utilize them across the curriculum."