This institute invites educators from across the country to learn about Abraham Lincoln through the Library of Congress's primary and web-based materials. Participants will leave with strategies and materials they can use in their schools. The institute uses the Library's exhibition "With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition" as its foundation.

Linda B. Osborne discusses her book for young people, Traveling the Freedom Road: From Slavery and the Civil War Through Reconstruction, which draws on the Library of Congress collections of former slave interviews to convey the aspirations, sorrows, courage, and hopes of ordinary people living through this period. Osborne mined the Federal Writers' Project slave narratives and materials in the Library's Manuscript, Prints and Photographs, Rare Book and Special Collections, and Geography and Map divisions for this work that focuses on the experiences of African American children. More than 80 archival images complement the text. Major events covered include the rise of the domestic slave trade, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Republican Congress' Reconstruction policies. From Charles Cowley, an enslaved child who had no shoes with which to walk through the snow, to Richard Slaughter, who enlisted in the Union Army at 17, this book reveals the personal hardships and courageous endurance of black youth in 19th-century America.

To mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, Scotland's national poet, the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, in collaboration with the Scottish government as part of its Homecoming Scotland 2009 celebration, presents a free public symposium on Burns's life and work, as well as his impact on America and American culture.

What are the goals of hands on learning? How do museum educators come up with activity ideas? How do they test ideas to make sure things work, and what happens when something fails?

Visitors will see prototypes and finished "products" of activities used successfully in Spark!Lab, and then will have the opportunity to prototype and give feedback on a new activity under development.

This month's prototyping activity is on electrical history. This is being developed to allow visitors to explore electrical science via the works of inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla (1856–1943). Tesla is best known for his many revolutionary contributions in the field of electricity and magnetism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tesla's patents and theoretical work formed the basis of many modern technologies now taken for granted, including fluorescent and neon lighting, automation, radio-controlled toys and guided missiles, and wireless transmissions that earned him the name "father of radio."

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.

Participants in this workshop will learn how to use artworks as primary sources in their classrooms to teach American history and critical thinking. This workshop brings together the best of the Young America and Westward Expansion eras featured in SAAM's school programs. Both activity ideas as preparation for a tour or as stand-alone classroom lessons will be covered.