Website: SAAM

The SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM (SAAM) website contains educational resources connecting students with American art.

SAAM’s Teacher Guides and Resources website includes teacher guides with corresponding standards and grade levels in the PDF format. Materials are available in the areas of Social Studies, Language Arts, Art and the African American Experience, Arte Latino, and Science and Art. In addition, resources are available through current and past exhibitions. Video content is also available such as artist interviews.

Librarians will find these educational resources useful across the curriculum. Sign up for an e-mail list to keep up-to-date with current resources.

To visit the website, go to https://americanart.si.edu/education/k-12/resources

Website Review: Museum of New Zealand

The MUSEUM OF NEW ZEALAND provides rich teaching resources exploring people and places connected with New Zealand.

The website includes dozens of educational resources from across the curriculum. Of particular note are the lessons associated with language and art. Tales from Te Papa contains 120 mini-documentaries that explore the stories behind artifacts in the museum’s collection.

Librarians will find this resource particularly useful in classrooms learning about the countries of the world. The website provides a unique perspective on world events. For instance, children in the US often learn about World War I from an American perspective. This project contains learning materials that help students learn about the experiences of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps on the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey.

To visit the website, go to https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/…/for-educato…/teaching-resources.

Website Review: The Museum of the World

THE MUSEUM OF THE WORLD is a collaborative project of The British Museum and Google Cultural Institute.

This interactive timeline allows users to scroll through history as they examine artifacts. The resources are organized by regions of the world including Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. Artifacts are also clustered into themes including arts and design, living and dying, power and identity, religion and belief, and trade and conflict. Users click on an object to learn more. In addition to a photo and text, explorers can play audio, examine the artifact’s location on a map, and view related objects.

Librarians will find this website useful when working with social studies and history teachers on themes connected with geography and social issues. Use the artifacts to jumpstart inquiries related to the project themes such as power and identity or trade and conflict.

To visit the website, go to https://britishmuseum.withgoogle.com/.

Website Review: National Women's History Museum

The NATIONAL WOMEN’S HISTORY MUSEUM contains exhibits and educational resources focusing on women and their history.

The museum website contains a content section that includes exhibits, articles, resources, and stories. The project uses text, images, audio, video, and interactives to share the rich history of women. The students and educators area provides learning materials including resources, biographies, key topics, and information about National History Day.

Librarians will find this to be a useful starting point for youth working on projects associated with women’s history. Use it to help students select research topics or locate lesser-known stories about the women’s movement.

To visit the website, go to https://www.nwhm.org/.

Digital Spotlight: National Baseball Hall of Fame

The NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME website contains a growing digital collection of photos, audio, video, and text.

Contents: Users can browse thousands of items related to the history of baseball. In addition to using the search tool, users can also browse collections including 3-D artifacts, cartoons, oral histories, scrapbooks, photo archives, World Series materials, and more.

Classroom Connections: Librarians will find this website to be a fun way to introduce digital collections. Share the website as part of a display that includes both fiction and nonfiction books about baseball.

Featured Digital Objects:
Jackie Robinson https://goo.gl/Q8RAxy
Scrapbooks https://goo.gl/S1LtG3
Oral Histories https://goo.gl/oiSb1g

To visit the collection, go to https://collection.baseballhall.org/

Website Review: The Life of the Blue Whale

THE LIFE OF THE BLUE WHALE is an interactive museum experience featuring the skeleton of a huge whale.

Produced by the Natural History Museum in London, the website explores the history of whales, whaling, and the museum’s exhibits. The website is divided into three sections. The Ocean examines the era of whaling and the science of whales. The Hintze Hall section explores the huge whale skeleton on exhibit at the museum. Finally, the Collection area examines the history of the museum and the whale skeleton.

Librarians will find this interactive website to be an interesting way to explore whales, whaling, and history through the lens of a museum setting.

To visit the website, go to http://www.nhm.ac.uk/bluewhale/.

Website Review: MetKids

METKIDS from the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a project made for, with, and by kids at the art museum.

The website’s resources are divided into sections.

The Interactive Map allows users to explore over 5,000 years of art from around the globe using a zoomable map of the museum. Students click on areas of the map to explore the art through text, images, and videos. The Time Machine features artwork by time period, geography, and big idea. The Videos area of the website features short engaging clips focusing on the topic of creations, questions and answers, made by kids, or celebrations.

Librarians will find this to be an easy-to-use website for elementary-aged children. Teachers will find applications in both the art and history curriculum. Use the blog for up-to-date information on new resources and exhibits.

To visit the website, go to https://www.metmuseum.org/art/online-features/metkids/.

Website Review: The Cyrus Tang Hall of China

THE CYRUS TANG HALL OF CHINA from The Field Museum is an online exhibition exploring the history of China.

Users begin by exploring the exhibition. The exhibition is divided into an introduction, five galleries, and two interactives exploring the diverse landscapes, ethnicities, social statuses, and lived experiences across time and space. Artifacts in the exhibition range thousands of years.

Each highlighted artifact includes background information, visuals, and background information.

The interactive elements allow users to explore information about China through a timeline and map video as well as a 360 virtual exhibit exploration tool.

Librarians will find the online exhibition to be an engaging way to experience the history of China. A supplemental website contains educational materials that focus on object-based learning approaches. These tools connect well with information skills and information inquiry activities in the library.

To visit the website, go to http://chinahall.fieldmuseum.org/.

To visit the educator toolkit, go to http://www.fieldmuseum.org/disc…/on-exhibit/china/educators/.

Website Review: VisLit

VISLIT from the Toledo Museum of Art explores visual literacy, visual language, and the “art of seeing art”.

The “Why Visual Literacy” section examines reasons why it’s importance to understand visual language. The page features a video that introduces the concept.

The “Visual Language” section discusses visual communication and provides short videos focusing on creativity, critical thinking, educational achievement, empathy, and technology.

The “Art of Seeing Art” area makes that connection between visual literacy and art. This page takes students through six steps: look, observe, see, describe, analyze, and interpret. Although aimed at the topic of art, these steps can be applied to any visual situation.

Finally, many additional resources are provided including visual literacy curriculum materials for teachers.

Librarians will find this website to be an outstanding resource in teaching key concepts related to visual literacy. Although the project takes an art museum perspective, the resources can easily be adapted to the school library setting.

The “Do you speak visual?” project is a companion website that helps users understand the importance of graphic representations and how to “speak visual”.

To visit the Visual Literacy website, go to http://www.vislit.org/
To visit the Do You Speak Visual? website, go tohttp://doyouspeakvisual.com/.

Website Review: Disability History Museum

THE DISABILITY HISTORY MUSEUM website hosts a digital collection, educational materials, and museum exhibits exploring the historical experience of people with disabilities and their communities.

The Library Collections section contains a broad range of digital objects including letters, memoirs, chapbooks, postcards, photos, cartoons, and more that shaped the experiences of people with disabilities. Users can browse by category or search the collection.

The Education section provides ideas for teaching with primary sources. The materials explore ways to weave disability history topics into history, civics, and literature classes. After exploring an overview, users can examine lesson plans and other teaching tools of interest.

The Exhibits section is currently under development.

With over 3,000 primary source documents and images to explore, librarians will find this website to be an excellent tool for weaving the historical experiences of people with disabilities into the curriculum through the use of primary sources.

To visit the website, go to http://www.disabilitymuseum.org/.

Website Review: Fraboom

FRABOOM is an interactive, online children’s museum for ages six through twelve.

The Map section of the website leads to each area of the website such as The Mouth, Drawing Academy, Bugs, and more. Although much of the website is free, a subscription-based version is also available. The free registration allows users to save their personalized icon and game scores.

The Games section include dozens of fun science and social studies related games. The Video section connects to Fraboom TV for free video content. The short, engaging cartoons feature engaging science and social studies content. The Interactive Video section features interactive books. Bug Book and A Dinosaur Ate My Homework are available for free. Periodically the website offers free online classes in topics such has drawing.

Librarians will find this website to be a fun home to school connection.

To visit the website, go to https://fraboom.com/.

Book Review: The Hunt for the Secret Papyrus

THE HUNT FOR THE SECRET PAPYRUS by Geronimo Stilton is an exciting mystery set at the New Mouse City’s Egyptian Museum.

Part of the “special edition” series, the adventure focuses on the mystery of the black papyrus. This ancient document is supposed to reveal the secret of eternal youth. Newspaper reporter Geronimo Stilton sets out to solve the mystery of the black papyrus and write an article for his newspaper.

The special edition book’s colorful illustrations and visual format will be particularly attractive to reluctant readers. While this book contains the fun highlighted words found in all the books, it also contains other interesting two-page spread visuals, diagrams, and other illustrations that will appeal to readers.

After the end of the story, the book includes a mini-mystery adventure titled The Cat Gang, jokes, and other information including a map of Mouse Island.

Librarians will find this book to be a popular addition to their growing collection of Geronimo Stilton books. Readers will particularly enjoy the full-color illustrations and additional features of this special edition. Use the author/series website to jumpstart library and classroom activities. Readers can play games, learn about characters, and even create their own comic.

To learn more about the author and series, go to http://www.scholastic.com/geronimostilton.

Published by Scholastic on March 29, 2016. ARC courtesy of Scholastic.

Website Review: American Museum of Natural History YouTube Channel

The AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY YouTube channel contains hundreds of fascinating videos on a wide range of topics.

Dozens of playlists feature video collections of interest to students such as Kid Science, Nature’s Fury, Bison, Dinosaurs, Space, and more.

The videos range from very short clips to longer viewing experiences. Some of the videos provide an inside looking into how museum exhibits are created and the science behind the exhibits.

Use the search tool to seek out topics of interest within the AMNH YouTube channel.

Librarians will want to mine the channel for videos that can be directly connected to the science curriculum. Also, seek out STEAM related videos such as those related to science, math and origami.

To learn more, go to https://www.youtube.com/user/AMNHorg.

Website Review: Smithsonian Encyclopedia

The SMITHSONIAN ENCYCLOPEDIA provides access to a multitude of online resources through an easy-to-use interface.

The online encyclopedia is organized into themes including Art and Design, History and Culture, Science and Technology, Mysteries of the Universe, A Biodiverse Planet, World Cultures, and The American Experience. Each section provides links to activities and games, fact sheets, online exhibitions, online features, reading lists, and research resources. While the resources are designed for the general public, they’re very useful for middle and high student projects.

Users can also explore by topic from aeronautics to women’s history or by resource type such as activities, games, online features, and teacher resources.

The Kids Favorites section is specifically designed for children. It provides access to dozens of activities and games found throughout the Smithsonian website. It also provides access to Fact Sheets that would be great for informational reading activities. Online Exhibitions of particular interest to youth are also provided including topics such as Abraham Lincoln, Butterflies, and Dinosaurs. Online Features include Invention Stories, Lewis and Clark resources, and the Dynamic Earth.

Librarians will want to spend some time mining this wonderful online resource matching the information sources with specific curriculum area needs.

To explore the website, go to http://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia.

Book Review: Seven Dead Pirates

SEVEN DEAD PIRATES by Linda Bailey is a humorous paranormal adventure about a boy who helps a gaggle of ghosts retake their pirate ship from a local museum.

After Lewis’s great grandfather dies, the shy eleven-year-old and his family moves into his great-grandfather’s creepy seaside mansion. Lewis soon discovers that the ghosts of seven pirates live in the secluded tower that’s now his bedroom. These spooky characters aren’t interested in haunting. Instead, they want to steal their pirate ship from the history museum and set sail for the pirate utopia known as Libertalia.

Perfect for a Halloween month read-aloud, this middle grades fantasy is full of paranormal fun and emerging friendships. Children will easily empathize with Lewis and his motley crew of apparitions. This book will quickly become a popular part of the library’s Halloween book display.

Librarians will also find the book to be a great focal point for a pirate themed event. Need ideas? Go to the Talk Like a Pirate website at http://www.talklikeapirate.com.

To learn more about the author, go to http://www.lindabaileybooks.com/.

Published by Tundra, an imprint of Random House on September 8, 2015.

Website Review: The International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes

THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF SHERLOCK HOLMES is both a physical and virtual exhibition focusing on the famous fictional crime investigator.

Although it would be fun to experience the traveling exhibition in personal, the website presents lots of information about author Arthur Conan Doyle and his famous detective.

The Path to Baker Street section explores those people who inspired the creation of Sherlock Holmes and the characters in the stories. Historical photographs bring the time period to life.

The Popular Fellow section features the movie and television adaptations. It also provides links to Sherlockian Societies, fan sites, and trivia.

The Footsteps of Holmes connects the fictional aspects of the stories to the real forensic science. Short videos and images highlight Sherlock’s methods.

The Sherlock in the Classroom area includes information, activities, and resources that can be used independently or in combination with a physical tour.

Create a librarian display featuring the works of Sherlock Holmes as well as a laptop with the website. Incorporate the suggested activities to make the display interactive!

To learn more, go to http://sherlockholmesexhibition.com.

Website Review: The Brain Scoop with Emily Graslie

THE BRAIN SCOOP WITH EMILY GRASLIE is an amazing YouTube Channel sponsored by The Field Museum in Chicago.

Described as the “chief curiosity correspondent”, Graslie shares new episodes every other Wednesday that feature fascinating items in The Field Museum collection. From insects and sharks to fossils and biomechanics, a wide range of topics are explored. The purpose of the channel is to share the behind-the-scenes work of natural history museums including both the research and collection aspects.

The entry page features the latest episode along with a list of the most recent videos. The most popular vides are also listed.

The “playlists” area of the channel is organized by popular topics. Viewers can choose from over 100 individual episodes or explore a category like Prep Lab Adventures or Ask Emily!

The high-quality videos run from 3 to 15 minutes and feature the enthusiastic narration of Emily Graslie. Designed to appeal to watchers of all ages, the tightly edited episodes are likely to appeal to the middle-grades as well as high school viewers.

Librarians will be happy to see that this is an ads free, education channel. With over a quarter million subscribers and over 10 millions views, THE BRAIN SCOOP is a video series you don’t want to miss.

For more information, check out the social media feeds including Tumblr, Google Plus, Facebook, and Twitter.

To extend the experience, follow their Tumblr blog at http://thebrainscoop.tumblr.com/.

To learn more, go to https://www.youtube.com/user/thebrainscoop.

App Review: American Museum of Natural History

The AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY (AMNH) is known for their great website, however they also have a growing number of quality, free apps.

THE POWER OF POISON: BE A DETECTIVE is a 2014 Webby Award Nominee. The app involves students in exploring three different cases of accidental poisoning in animals. Through a series of animations, participants must determine which of the 18 suspects is to blame.

PTEROSAURS: FLIGHT IN THE AGE OF DINOSAURS is an app that provides an in-depth look at flying reptiles and the latest fossil discoveries. Animations, interactives, video interviews, and exciting activities immerse youth in the world of dinosaurs. PTEROSAURS: THE CARD GAME and DINOSAURS are two other apps based on the AMNH special exhibit.

The CREATURES OF LIGHT app provides animations, photo galleries, and videos related to bioluminescence.

The BERNARD FAMILY HALL OF NORTH AMERICAN MAMMALS app provides information about the museum’s mammal collection including interviews, photos, and commentary from the curator.

COSMIC DISCOVERIES is an app containing 1000 astronomical images from the AMNH’s image collection.

These free apps are a wonderful way to expose youth to the wonders of science and the importance of museums.

Go to the AMNH Apps page at http://www.amnh.org/apps.

Or, go directly to iTurns at https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/american-museum-natural-history/id351849240.