less is more
"People who can't come often to a museum frequently try to 'do the museum' in a single survey visit," observes Amy O'Donnell, who cautions against such an ambitious agenda. "There's too much to cover, and too much stimulation. It won't feel doable to the kids or to you. Do less in a deeper way — a single hall which links to something specific in your curriculum."

explain how to find information
"There has to be a lesson in how to use the museum," says Amy. "If you're doing research, or even if you're simply looking at a picture or diorama, kids often don't even know where to look to find out the name of the place depicted." For example, individual objects might be connected to detailed descriptions on a numbered list, while a larger label might explain why objects are grouped together. If objects on display are depicted in a mural, point that out to your students, along with the explicatory panel on the wall.

On a larger scale, think about the organizing principles of the exhibit or gallery. When Amy led a field trip of sixth graders studying Egypt around the AMNH's Hall of African peoples, "one of first things I wanted to show them was that our exhibit is designed according to ecological zones, with Egypt in the River Valley section. I explained that our hall has broken culture down into its components (like Beliefs and Community Organization), and that objects in the cases come from many different groups. So it might make sense to look at the objects in terms of similarities of resources, or disparities in materials."

practice field trip activities beforehand
"Whatever the task you plan to have your students work on at the museum, they should have done in the classroom, probably more than once," advises Amy. "For example, at the Museum School we ask them to write down observable facts about objects, and then to make subjective judgements from these objective observations. You wouldn't want the first time they did that to be on a field trip." She suggests a class discussion about the nature of a really good observation, whether it involves writing down lots of details or adding shading and labeling to a drawing. Amy asks her students, "Can you draw an object from someone else's description?"

"Do learning-to-look exercises in your classroom ahead of time," urges Stephanie. "What does it mean to really look?" If you can get hold of a few slides from the exhibit, she suggests showing some to the class to whet their appetite and stimulate a conversation about looking at objects. Another exercise is to bring in five or six "mystery" objects from your home, give one to each table, and have the students make a hypothesis about the object's function. Stephanie also recommends getting kids to do focused looking. "Let's say you wanted to look at African masks, and you go over to a case with 50 masks. How do you get kids, especially small ones, to look at one at a time? One teacher made cardboard cutouts, like little frames, for kids to hold up to just look at one at a time."

frame some distinct questions or goals for the trip
Whether by looking, by researching, or by putting ideas together, a museum field trip can answer questions. Finding answers turns the trip into an engaging expedition. "If you say to your students, 'Our objective is to find out what these dinosaurs actually looked like, or how Native Americans used quills,' they know what their quest is all about, and they stay focused," Amy points out. "And distilling these ideas helps the teacher define the purpose of the trip."

pursue distinct goals through distinct activities
"Kids should come into the museum with something to do. Even if you plan to give them a very general assignment — walk around the gallery, draw up a simple worksheet that addresses things the class has talked about, sketch and describe the thing that really interests them — it helps the students focus and stay engaged," explains Stephanie. "They feel like they're participating in the learning experience rather than just being talked to, whether by a teacher or by a museum educator. It puts the responsibility for learning partly on the students, and they have to really think about what they're doing in the museum."

Another way to encourage active learning is to come up with questions that are open-ended. As Stephanie puts it, "Students should read the label, but questions should not be framed so that the answer is contained in the label. That way they can look at something, think about it, and come up with a number of possible answers, or a theory of their own."

take advantage of any unique opportunities the museum offers
One reason to visit a museum is to see objects that you've only seen in books. "But often you can see things that you haven't been able to get anywhere else, which will somehow complete your unit," Amy points out. "This should be by design, though it can also happen by chance." For example, Amy also works as a staff developer with a fourth-grade class that was studying butterflies. "In the classroom the children have measured specimens, done drawings, asked questions, and so on. But they couldn't do behavioral studies until we went to see live butterflies in the Museum's temporary Butterfly Conservatory. Plus I could ask them to watch out for the things we've already studied: to look for a chrysalis, or try to find butterflies with camouflage strategies for survival, or warning coloration."

And once you're at the museum...

allow for chance and exploration
When a class goes into a gallery, teachers have to be prepared for the kids to be drawn to things outside the curriculum. The colossal Olmec head at the door to the Hall of Mexico and Central America is that kind of show-stopper. "Even if you're studying the Aztecs, why not spend five minutes on the head?" asks Stephanie. "What does it tell you about the organization of society? You might not come to the same big question in another area of the hall." Whether you come across them on purpose or by chance, objects and displays elsewhere in the building will certainly be relevant to the questions your class is asking.