Object and Exhibition-Based Learning
Have you ever wondered how to bring the Watkinson Library’s Special Collections and Archives or the Widener Gallery’s exhibitions into your teaching? These resource guides offer helpful suggestions and examples for incorporating these campus treasures into your courses, from working with rare books, manuscripts, and archival materials to engaging students with curated contemporary art exhibitions. Whether you’re new to object and exhibition-based learning or looking to deepen an existing practice, each guide offers concrete strategies, pedagogical rationale, and ideas for building assignments that sharpen students’ observation, interpretation, and evidence-based argumentation skills. Explore both guides to see how primary sources and visual art can bring new depth and energy to any discipline.
Resources
- Watkinson Object-Based Learning Guide
- Exhibition-Based Learning Guide
- Object-Based Learning: Exploring Museums and Collections in Education
- Object Learning | Harvard Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning
- A Case for Objects: Material Culture in the History Classroom
- Smithsonian Learning Lab
