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Texas Memorial Museum One of the best resources in Austin for K-12 teachers is UT's Texas Memorial Museum. Chartered by the state legislature in 1936, the Texas Memorial Museum serves the public by preserving, studying, and interpreting the natural and cultural heritage of Texas. For K-12 students, TMM provides a unique place to learn all about Texas. In a museum careful observation of the objects can stimulate critical thinking skills, and guided tours at TMM emphasize these skills. Tours explore four principal exhibit themes--American Indian Cultures, Prehistoric Life, Rocks and Minerals, or Texas Wildlife. They include hands-on activities like exploring the texture and weight of a fossil, or practicing the use of prehistoric stone tools. And, in keeping with UT Austin's continuing commitment to support K-12 education, UT undergraduates serve as docents for all guided tours and serve as educators at outreach events. But TMM is more than just a place to take a field trip. Free curriculum resources are available for teachers as well. K-12 curriculum guides are designed to help teachers use information from exhibits in the classroom. Each guide contains pre- and post-visit lesson plans, reproducible worksheets, and a vocabulary list. Curriculum guides are available online or in tour packets. Tours and curriculum guides comply with the TEKS in science and social studies. Exploring TMM online is another way to bring the museum to students in the classroom. Students can explore Capturing a Child's Spirit, an online activity that explores the historic roles of American Indian children in family life and in society. Students can also Ask the Expert and communicate with scientists and historians, identify Mystery Objects from the Museum's collections, and complete Word Searches online. TMM Discovery Kits--another of the free curricular resources--are a series of hands-on, inquiry-based lesson and activity kits based on earth science, life science, and social studies themes from the TEKS. Each kit features lessons and reproducible activity sheets, manipulative and investigation materials, a step-by-step procedure, a vocabulary list, assessment, and extension suggestions. The Texas Memorial Museum also partners with the Austin Independent School District in sponsoring all second grade classes on a local science field trip. TMM provides a choice of three inquiry-based science programs for second grade students. Nature Detectives--the Life Cycles of Texas Wildlife, Peewee Paleontologists--Scientific Inquiry in Real Life, and How Weather Affects Rocks and Minerals are grounded in the TEKS and support the AISD Science Framework for second grade. So what will Texas students dig up at the Texas Memorial Museum? Reptiles from ancient Texas seas, mountain lions on the prowl, stone tools from the first Texans--we invite you to come and discover for yourself. Information about educational resources and programs can be found on the TMM's Web site or by contacting 512-232-5509.

February 05, 2001 Comments or suggestions to utopa@www.utexas.edu Website comments to Web Administrator Copyright © 2001 Office of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin