The latest news and updates from the Maine State Museum
Museum Roundup
News & Updates from the Maine State Museum
October 2021
Maine State Museum educators take over Museum Roundup!
This fall, the State House Complex feels empty without the stream of yellow school buses delivering students to the Maine State Museum. Even though the museum is closed for renovations, museum educators have been hard at work, using the building’s closure as a time to renew, enhance, and explore new dimensions in educational programming. With this growth and enhancement, the museum website has become a more active tool for outreach across the state, from an ever-expanding list of lesson plans and activities to the exciting new Online Collection Database.
The Latest...
See You in the Park!
The Maine State Museum and the Children's Discovery Museum are partnering to offer an afternoon of hands-on activities, special demos, and more, all centered around celebrating the beautiful state of Maine! Learn more here.
Maine educators are invited to join a free online workshop on our “Maine’s Bicentennial” Primary Source Set. The webinar explores pre-packaged online teaching materials about Maine’s 200th anniversary, with a focus on the theme “Statehood and the Wabanaki.”
Did you know that Maine State Museum's educators are available to come into classrooms around the state – virtually? MSM is reaching out to schools and homeschools with a variety of interactive online programs for grades K-12. Programs launch this fall, so tell the teachers in your life to take a look at MSM!
“In a state as large as Maine, we’ve always been aware that not every school district can make a trip to Augusta,” says Chief Educator Joanna Torow. "The museum’s closure has been difficult and unwelcome, but necessary. But there has been a silver lining because we finally have time to prioritize virtual programming and outreach.”
MSM educators anticipate that once the museum reopens, virtual programs will still be available for classes that can’t make it to Augusta in person. "Seeing history live is a very special experience,” says Torow, “but online visits are a wonderful option!”
These materials were developed in partnership with the Maine Department of Education, Maine State Archives, and Maine State Library.
This fall, MSM debuts a set of new educational materials on the theme “Freedom and Captivity.” MSM is part of a statewide public humanities project exploring the complexities of incarceration in Maine. Over 50 partner organizations across the state are hosting events, exhibits, and programs.
The educator packets encourage students to do the work of historians by analyzing Maine-based primary sources such as documents, artifacts, images, and sound recordings. The sources explore aspects of the local history of incarceration, including the Maine State Prison, World War II POW camps, Indigenous children in boarding schools, and more.
Two Colby College students worked on the project in a summer internship with MSM’s education staff. Stella Margarita Gonzalez, who has a background in museum content creation, and Devon Berkeley, whose interests lie in school curriculum development, sifted through historical materials and chose sources that are both compelling and accessible to Maine’s students.
