Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Smithsonian
Magazine’s Around the Mall blog. Do you have a great idea for
visiting the Museum with your class? Share it with us in the
comments! On a recent Thursday morning, 71 eleventh graders from
the Field School, an independent middle and high school in
northwest Washington, D.C., took a field trip to the National
Museum of American History. The museum seemed an obvious choice
for an outing—the students, all taking American History, were in
the thick of learning about early exploration and colonization.
But the assignment six teachers tasked the students with during
the visit was refreshingly unconventional. Local 11th graders
participate in a scavenger hunt, designed by their teachers, at
the National Museum of American History. Photo courtesy of
flickr user juco. Playing to the interests of high schoolers,
the teachers supplied the students, divided into groups, with a
list of yearbook superlatives—Mr. and Mrs. Congeniality, Most
Athletic, Best Coupl