Our country’s museums are one of our great underused educational resources.

As James Trapp (Mandarin Education Consultant) explains, museums are such a valuable educational tool as they’re accessible to students regardless of age, level or location– most museums have extensive online collections you can use in the classroom that are applicable to many stages of learning.

Object-based learning can connect students to varied cultures, momentous events and influential figures in history. Watch James use the British Museum in London’s huge Chinese collection to send students on a quest of discovery. Students must use objects from the collection to populate their quest and tell the story of their adventure.

This cross-curricula experience is applicable to any museum, in any location and using any online museum collection you can find.

For more Quest information please click here

The British Museum

www.ancientchina.co.uk is a site developed by The British Museum for Key Stage 2 learning (ages 7-11 years).

The Staff Room page gives an overview of the site and the types of resources. Topics include: Crafts and Artisans, Geography, Time, Tombs and Ancestors, and Writing.

To find a museum with a Chinese collection in your area see here but don’t forget- most museums have an extensive online collection if you can’t get to a museum yourself!

Want more? Here are some similar approaches:

Another similar approach to learning with objects is to create an “object box”. Learn more about it by looking at the PPT below, also written by James Trapp.

Here is a PPT you can use to talk to your pupils in more depth about artefacts: