Here's a simple exercise to get your students ready for their museum excursion.

Museums tell the story of the past through the objects or artifacts used by people in those times. Learning to "read" an artifact is a skill to be acquired through practice just like reading a text.

Select an object that is probably unfamiliar to your students. Ask students to describe the artifact's physical characteristics and to guess the use of the object both in the present and in the past.

Discuss how students developed their ideas about the object.

Practice for the Teacher or Group Leader -

Describe the objects on this page. What might be the use of the corrugated metal (probably zinc) areas of the washboard? How would you place your feet to use the boot jack? Where would you have put the insecticide in the sprayer; how would you get it out? Why is the horseshoe made in a U shape? What did you figure out about the washboard, horseshoe, sprayer and bootjack through observation, description and connection to prior knowledge?

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Updated 12/23/2003

Michigan Historical Center, Department of History, Arts and Libraries
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