Virtual Tour Scavenger Hunt

One activity that did not go well in one class is a virtual tour/scavenger hunt of the newly opened African American Museum for grades 3-5. First, we kept getting kicked off the Internet. It was supposed to be a self-guided tour and scavenger hunt, but when the Internet failed, half of the class could not access the required website. Then, the activity turned into whole class instruction using the smart board. This really took the fun out of it, and the kids were very disappointed. I am just grateful that it happened in one class and not many others. I did check with the teacher in the morning before class and was told it was working fine, but the Internet still failed. I think I need a better plan “B” in place for these types of problems. …show more content…
The tour required students to “visit” a history gallery that housed Emmett Till’s casket. Some student had their curiosity peaked and then started doing further research on Emmett’s life. This resulted in some disturbing images of Emmett in his casket. Though this is an important and pivotal event in civil rights history, it was too graphic for some students. I later revised the scavenger hunt and removed the question directing students to this artifact on the tour. Some students may still come across this artifact while browsing through the tour, but I did not direct students to visit this part of the museum. It was a difficult decision, but there were many other emotionally charged artifacts for the students to research that did not lead to such graphic