Using Museum Exhibits: An Innovation in Experiential Learning

Abstract

Museum exhibits can be a tool in experiential learning. While instructors have documented various methods of experiential learning, they have not sufficiently explored such learning from museum exhibits. Museum researchers, however, have long found a satisfying cognitive component to museum visits. This paper narrates the author's design to capture the cognitive experience at museums through integrating two Smithsonian exhibits with introductory Microeconomics and Macroeconomics classes in a two-year college. Cognitive gains made by students during the structured museum visit were reinforced with appropriate readings and assignments. The teaching method outlined is a significant addition to an experiential economist's toolkit. This method, however, can be used in any discipline. Apart from introducing students to a resource for lifelong learning, the inclusion of museum exhibits to academic teaching allows instructors to move away from chalk and talk, increase student engagement, increase content-relevance, provide in-depth coverage of certain areas and improve proficiencies. In a nutshell, the use of museum exhibits improves the overall quality of a course.

Keywords:

• active learning
• experiential learning
• instruction
• learning in museums
• patent models
• pedagogy
• teaching economics
• teaching methods
• race

Acknowledgments

I am extremely grateful to Ms. Bette Daudu for her encouragement and tireless editing work for the paper.

Notes

¹ The project began in 2011 when I won a Smithsonian Faculty Fellowship (resulting from a partnership of my institution and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.). Fellows were responsible for finding an exhibit that could be linked to one of their courses.

² http://research.history.org/Archaeological_Research/Programs/Field_School.cfm

³ https://tang.skidmore.edu/index.php/pages/view/252/section:193

⁴ https://intra.krannert.purdue.edu/sites/econandart/Pages/Home.aspx

⁵ Linda Gorman. “Discrimination.” The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. 2008. Library of Economics and Liberty. Retrieved August 18, 2013 from the World Wide Web: http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Discrimination.html

⁶ Zorina Khan, “An Economic History of Patent Institutions”. EH.Net Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Whaples. March 16, 2008. Retrieved August 18, 2013 from the World Wide Web: http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/khan.patents

⁷ James E. Bessen and Eric Maskin, “Sequential Innovation, Patents and Imitation,” MIT Dept. of Economics Working Paper No. 00-01, January 2000. Retrieved August 18, 2013 at SSRN http://ssrn.com/abstract=206189 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.206189