WWII Memorial Museum Tour

  • Students have two roles: Your focus area of interest and then a specific job within putting the museum together (Editor, Designer, Historian, Project Manager Etc.)
  • Research Notetakers – Needs to have a box for artifact or a plan for the artifact.
  • Artifact for inside the gallery and then a picture for the “Hallway” of the Gallery

Essential Question: How did America’s actions and inactions during WWII affect the world we live in today?

Essential Question: How did WWII impact and transform society throughout the world and in the United States?

Bonus Question: How did these events of WWII influence literature, institutions, movements, science, and the arts of today?

The purpose of a memorial museum is to capture answers to these questions by providing first-hand accounts and artifacts (art, literature, etc.) that tell a story that should be remembered. Throughout this project the focus will be on storytelling and capturing memories that must never be forgotten if we are to learn from our past actions and inactions.

Part One: Individual Gallery

The individual gallery will allow for each student to show what he/she learned in regard to the events of WWII, how his/her focus area has influenced the way that we live today, and what stories there are to tell.

Each gallery must include the following:

  • Information on the focus area and its relationship to WWII (research).
  • Memorialize and tell someone’s story (victims, survivors, helpers, heroes, etc.).
  • At least six artifacts to connect the time period to your focus area (examples may include pictures, music, art work, speeches, significant people, maps, etc.).
  • Your gallery must answer the essential questions in a creative, thoughtful, and purposeful way.
  • Follow the “6 ingredients for a successful museum tour design” on the next page

Part Two: Designing a Wonderful Experience (Putting it all together)

When it’s a wonderful experience, going to a memorial museum can teach us, delight us and inspire us; however, a lot of effort goes into a museum tour design. You can learn a lot by first understanding the ingredients that make such designs so successful. It’s not as simple as you might think.

Once all of the group members have completed their research and gallery requirements, you will work as a group (for a group grade) and put it all together into one product, a memorial museum. There will be handouts, mini-lessons, and time to research different museum model tours.

Virtual Museum

  • PowerPoint
  • Follow examples and directions given in class for expectations
  • Must include at least 4 “rooms” or galleries in order for each group member to “teach us” about their focus area and tell a story that is important enough to share with your audience
  • Must include one “room” addressing the Essential Questions. (How do your other “rooms” tie into how we are living history TODAY?)
  • Bibliography with all group member’s sources (this includes books, internet, interview, etc.)

The following are 6 ingredients for a successful museum tour design:

A museum is constantly looking for different ways to attract visitors, but what happens once they get there?

1.Motivate Visitors:
Target an audience and have a purpose— the general public and/or specific communities. There will be audience members coming to experience your memorial museum.

2.Focus Content:
Filter content so visitors are not bombarded with information overload – keep to the most valuable information. Part of the content piece is to find and showcase someone’s story in relation to your focus area. Why is their story important enough to share?

3.Immersion of Artifact(s):
Engage visitors within a “story” – use pictures, excerpts from speeches, maps, people, etc. to tell a story. Again, the remembrance piece will allow you to tell the story of someone affected by this time in history (survivors, victims, heroes, etc.).

4.Organized:
Information is presented in an organized fashion – it flows and is easy to follow and experience.

5.Capture Curiosity:
Use storytelling techniques to engage your visitors. This is not just another research assignment. Engage the visitors of your memorial museum with significant artifacts, originality (voice), and creativity (music, etc.).

6.Interaction:
Give visitors a unique experience by tapping into their emotion(s). Include a message that impacts your visitors. Your visitors will be completing a Visitor’s Log after they tour your museum. This will capture their overall experience to the information that you have presented.

Part Three – Museum Tour Sheet

Your group will be responsible for creating a handout that visitors of your museum will use to guide them through the experience. You must have at least 5 questions/tasks for your visitors. Each group member might want to create one of the tasks so that there is something specific that each visitor will get out of from each gallery that they experience.