Native American Museum Project Based Learning Activities

Native American Museum Project Based Learning Activities: Project based learning is an important part of any classroom. In this unit, students will follow the rubric to research a specific tribe for the Native American Society of Elders. The Native American Society of Elders is creating a Native American Museum of History. They feel it is important to be correctly represented. Each group will research and represent a different tribe (Arctic (Inuit), Northwest (Kwakiutl), Plateau (Nez Perce), Southwest (Hopi), Plains (Pawnee), and Southeastern (Seminole). It is each group’s job to create relevant items to go into each museum room. Since facts are important, each group must complete each task, but may choose any reasonable way to display each tribe in their museum room. Students are not only researchers, but are designers as well. Students must make their museum room unique and fun! Students will break up into small groups, and choose a tribe to research. Students will create a driving question that will help them give true meaning to their project. Throughout the project, students will ask and answer questions related to their tribe and the standards. Students will follow steps of project based instruction and their rubrics as they research and present the research of their tribe in the museum. Students will present the project in the museum room, and reflect on their findings. Included in this packet are GPS standards, a project rubric, project based instruction steps, individual tribe/region posters for museum rooms, and driving question sheet. I use it in my fourth grade classroom, but you can use it in other grades too. Enjoy!