Prepare students for their visit to the Michigan Historical Museum with our online minitours. Make a virtual visit to a gallery to read an overview of its major themes. Show students pictures of some of the artifacts and photos that they will see at the museum. Let students tour online - or print and post the pages on a "museum visit" bulletin board.

Discuss what you will see. Have students develop a list of questions for each gallery that will help them focus and lead to learning (who, what, where, when, why, how). Depending on your preparation time, you might focus on one gallery each day or each week until the day of the visit.

These Michigan Historical Museum galleries currently offer online minitours:

The First People to 1900 (second floor)

• Settling a State
• Civil War
• Mining
• Lumbering
• Farm and Factory, 1860-1900

Michigan in the 20th Century (third floor)

• Farm & Factory, 1900-1930
• 1920s Street Scene
• The Great Depression
• The Arsenal of Democracy
• The 1950s
• The 1960s

Visiting one of the Michigan Historical Museum System's historic sites or museums outside of Lansing? These online minitours are available:

• The Barn Exhibit (Walker Tavern, Cambridge Junction/Brooklyn)
• The Copper Harbor Lighthouse (Fort Wilkins, Copper Harbor)
• Kids at Fayette (Fayette Historic Townsite, Garden)

Contact the Michigan Historical Museum.

Updated 09/09/2010