PARTNERS IN EDUCATION

The National Museum of the Marine Corps recognizes the important role classroom teachers play in ensuring a meaningful museum experience. The Museum is committed to assisting educators with enriching their and their students’ lives through exploration of the inspiring stories that make up the history, traditions, and culture of the United States Marine Corps. From classroom teachers to after-school program providers, camp coordinators to church program leaders, the Museum is a unique resource suitable for any age or audience. Teacher In-Service workshops are offered twice a year and include introductions to exhibitions, orientations to visiting the Museum, demonstrations and talks, hands-on activities for teachers, and intensive curriculum building courses with hands-on emphasis. Our education staff wants to work closely with you as a partner in educating your students. While exposure to artistic, historical, and discovery-centered objects is important to a young mind, taking some time to really prepare for and follow-up your visit will allow your class to gain real knowledge and sensitivity to what they see, read, do, and hear while at the Museum.

• School Groups in the Museum
• Guided Tours
• Self-Guided Activities
• Guidelines for School Groups
• Museum Manners
• Suggestions for Teaching in the Museum
• In Your School
  

SCHOOL GROUPS

Schedule a Visit
Contact the Group Tour Coordinator at (703) 784-6121 to schedule the date and time of your tour, and discuss arrangements for lunch, Museum Store visitation, etc. We recommend that you reserve early in the school year to ensure your preferred dates. Here are some strategies to achieve a meaningful museum experience:

Back to top

GUIDED TOURS

Guided tours are offered weekday mornings during the school year and are designed for students in grade levels 5 through 12. General tours last about one hour and cover the entire Museum. Tours focusing on specific SOL-related topics may be available upon request. Volunteer docents have been trained by Museum educators, curators, and historians to bring exhibits to life with sparkling commentary. These tours are free and require advance reservations. Please call our Tour Group Coordinator at (703) 784-6121.

Back to top

SELF-GUIDED ACTIVITIES

Gallery Recon scavenger hunts are designed for school and youth groups needing flexibility in their schedule and for those who prefer written assignments for their students. The Museum will offer self-guided scavenger hunts instead of or in addition to scheduled guided tours. These hunts are information-gathering sorties that take students through the Museum galleries in search of answers to a set of questions oriented to each grade level and SOL group. Advance reservations are required. One adult leader is required for every 10 students. Upon checking in, a museum educator will provide the materials needed for the activity. Some adult chaperones will also receive an answer key. The tours take between 1 and 2 hours depending on the topic selection and group size. Groups without prior reservations may pick up a self-guided activity packet at the Museum Info Desk on a first come basis.

Back to top

GUIDELINES FOR SCHOOL GROUPS

The following guidelines for schools groups visiting the National Museum of the Marine Corps are designed to maintain an atmosphere within the museum that is favorable to all visitors.

Chaperones: Arrange for one chaperone per 10 students, and distribute and make chaperones aware of Museum Manners guidelines.

Museum Store: Our Museum Store is available to your students following their tour. For pre-school and elementary age children, we have pre-paid “goody bags” available. Please notify the Store Manager in advance with the number of bags needed. Middle school and older students will be welcomed into the shop up to 20 at a time, (without backpacks!) with a chaperone supervising. No loitering is allowed and anyone not actively shopping or waiting in line to pay must move on to make room for others.

On Arrival: Your group will be greeted in the lobby by a Museum Volunteer or Education Department member to review Museum Manners and orient the group to the exhibits. Please have large groups divided according to instructions on your Tour Confirmation sheet.

• Arrive on time. Tours are carefully scheduled. Please call the Museum at (703) 784-6121 if you will be delayed. Late arrivals may have a shortened tour.
• Tours are approximately 45-60 minutes long. A Museum Store visit adds at least 20 minutes.
• Chaperones are expected to stay with their group at all times.
• Backpacks, large packages, gum, food and drinks are not permitted in the Museum. Please leave these items on the bus along with outer garments if possible.
• Cameras are permitted, but no flash photography in the galleries, please. The light hurts sensitive paper and textile artifacts.
• Remember, body oils are corrosive and degrade metal and other surfaces, so please resist the temptation to touch objects unless you are told it is allowed.
• Polite behavior in the Museum includes no running or shouting. Other visitors are in the galleries during your tour and may wish a quieter experience.
  
• Museum volunteers and staff are available for assistance during your visit. Look for their nametags.
• The Museum is accessible to people with disabilities. Please call for specifics.

Back to top

MUSEUM MANNERS

Visiting the museum should be a fun, enjoyable experience for everyone. One of the ways to ensure a positive adventure is to practice appropriate etiquette. The following practical advice is good for both the novice and the experienced museum visitor:

• Artifacts and art on display are not to be touched, unless specifically stated otherwise by Museum staff. There is no climbing or sitting on artifacts, both for the visitor’s safety and for the protection of the artifacts.
• Students may not bring their lunches into the Museum with them. No eating or drinking is allowed anywhere in the Museum. There is a Mess Hall on the second level where a variety of food may be purchased. Water fountains are available on both levels.
• Up to 20 students at a time may enter the Museum Store for purchasing items then must rotate out to make room for others. It is possible to pre-purchase “goody bags” and selected educational items prior to the visit for pick up (to avoid lines). There is a mail order catalog available and a web site: http://www.marineheritage.org/Store_index.asp.
• The Group Leader and chaperones are responsible for keeping the group together and maintaining proper behavior. The following actions are not appropriate: loud talking; running; disrupting the experience of others; touching artifacts; disregarding the directions of Museum staff, group leaders, teachers, and chaperones.
• The Museum staff is not responsible for the behavior management of students while at the Museum. That responsibility is in the hands of the Group Leader and chaperones. If a Museum staff member must intervene, the Museum reserves the right to discontinue the program and dismiss the group from the Museum.

Please remind your students that...

• It is okay to talk about the objects on display; however, shouting and yelling is for outside activities.
• Food, drinks, candy, and gum are not allowed inside.
• All parts of the body should be at least two feet (an arm’s length) away from artifacts and art on the walls.
• It is okay to look with their eyes but not with their hands (this includes walls, labels, display cases, and pedestals).
• They are to walk, not run in the building or through the galleries.
• Pens, pencils, or sharp objects must remain in pockets and bags and even fingers should not come too close to the art, exhibits and cases.
• Objects in the Museum are there because they are important reminders of our history. Many of them are very old. The Museum wants them to last so people can see them far into the future. If many people were to touch them, they would start to fall apart. Wear and tear on the objects and especially oils from people’s hands can help them to deteriorate. There are some objects in the Museum that can be handled and your guide will tell you when something can be touched.
• Be curious. Ask lots of questions. Sometimes the guide doesn’t tell you everything there is to know. If you are curious about something, ask. If your guide doesn’t know the answer to your question, they will find out.

Back to top

SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING IN THE MUSEUM

The Museum offers students the chance to learn about many different types of art and historic artifacts. Think about ways you can allow your class to participate in stimulating questions and activities tailored to your grade level. How can you weave language arts, social studies, reading, history, math, and science into your tour? Below are some suggested activities for your students:

• Research a specific historic period and present your findings.
• Write a poem or story about a museum artifact that interests you.
• Select an image or display case and act out the scene it depicts. Or for younger students, pretend you are one of the people in the diorama or display case. How would you act if you were the person you see?
• Listen to various types of music as you examine pictures. How do different melodies affect your viewing experience?
• Create a timeline of important events in your family’s past.
  
• Conduct oral histories with family members who are veterans to really gain a sense of what life in the service was like.
• Assemble a photo collage of period snapshots of your family.
• Examine the fashions of the past. Have students design garments that they think will be a part of the future military uniform.
• Invite a guest to speak to your class about being in the Marine Corps. (Museum educators can put you in touch with Marines in various occupational specialties.)

Back to top

IN YOUR SCHOOL: FANTASTIC FOOTLOCKERS

The classroom teacher is typically the best person to help students connect with academic topics. For that reason, the Museum’s educators have created a menu of opportunities that support teachers and their curriculum. All resources meet Virginia SOLs and national standards. The Museum’s relationships with Marine Corps University, the USMC History Division, and the Gray Research Center (Library), provide teachers with access to primary materials and subject experts.

Linked directly to the Museum’s collections and exhibits, these programs are designed to provide an engaging mix of content knowledge and hands-on activity. In one program, rare photographs of early aircraft are studied and students are transported back in time to an era when bravery accompanied curiosity. Students learn the basic principles of flight and how Marine ingenuity and innovation led to success in accomplishing a goal. Students also examine why different fuselage shapes function differently by building models and testing them. Packed with hands-on activities, each of the in-school programs also incorporate local history and geography lessons.

In the classroom, students are divided into small groups to allow each student multiple opportunities for hands-on experience. The groups cycle through different learning stations, each introducing vocabulary and physical evidence through demonstration and participation, which support an idea or process. VA Curriculum Framework Learning Standards are the basis of all teaching trunk units. For up to six weeks, your school’s students study a range of artifacts from the Museum’s education collection. Museum staff educators come to the school to assist in the program. Schools also have the opportunity to host a Marine Corps field historian or combat artist, a member of the curatorial staff, or other subject matter expert to participate in an assembly. Supplementary materials and resources are provided to assist teachers in connecting the artifacts to history, english, social studies, math, and science.

Fantastic Footlockers — themes by grade level:

Back to top