Participants in this institute will interact with scientists studying Maine's unique environment; explore the wide range of National Park Service resources available to teachers; visit an offshore island and learn how early artists, Native Americans, and coastal environments can intersect in your classroom; and develop multidisciplinary activities to take back to their classrooms.

This annual residential seminar takes on a different theme each year. The chosen theme will complement the basic concept of the symposium, which is to learn about the cultural landscapes of the Northern Neck. The symposium will feature lectures, site visits, and tours.

From the Newberry Library website:

"[This conference] will support teachers in the development of lessons using images from the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Picturing America program.

Conferences will feature presentations by distinguished scholars and sharing of resources in workshop formats. We will use the Newberry Library’s collections as well as a visit to the Art Institute of Chicago and a walking tour of Chicago’s Loop to model ways for teachers to use local resources in their own communities."

From the North Dakota State University website:

"Experiential learning is at the heart of Prairie Earth, Prairie Homes. Participants in the field school take part in the restoration of an amazing and significant historic property - the Hutmacher Farmstead, in Dunn County, North Dakota. The Hutmacher house and outbuilding walls are constructed of sandstone mortared with clay, both quarried on the farm. The roof uses ridgepoles and rafters locally cut and covered with successive layers of brush (chokecherry, plum), flax straw, clay, and aggregate. The house was built by the children of German-Russian immigrants and was occupied into the 1970s.

In order to broaden the learning experience, participants also will tour and study examples of the earth building traditions of the various cultures to occupy the West River country of the northern plains:

* Mandan & Hidatsa earth lodges
* Sod houses of Anglo-Americans
* Earth houses of the Germans from Russia

Depending on the enrollment option chosen, students will engage in preparatory readings and study prior to the field experience, write curricular materials adapted from the content of the course, or pursue independent research projects springing from it."

This four-week institute will use Winslow Homer's paintings as the point of departure for a voyage of discovery about maritime history in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The goal is not only to understand the period historically and culturally, but also to explore multiple source materials for discovering the past, including works of art and literature, objects, landscapes, the built environment, descendant communities and a range of historical documents in order to synthesize these various perspectives. Participants will develop cross-disciplinary lessons and teaching materials for classrooms.

From the National Museum of the American Indian website:

"To Native peoples from the Chesapeake region, the Bay and its watershed are not only a natural resource but a central part of their cultural identities. Learn how the Great Shellfish Bay and its tributaries physically and spiritually sustained Native communities in the sixteenth century. Explore indigenous peoples' enduring connections to this fragile ecosystem and some of their current environmental partnerships to revitalize and protect the Chesapeake."

For more on the National Museum of the American Indian, refer to NHEC's Museums and Historic Sites entry.