Table top exhibit

object boxes from the lending collection

The concept for our table top exhibit is “Pieces And The Whole: Inside and Outside the Body”. This concept emerged from a common concern: students do not understand how pieces fit together to make the whole. K. teaches health. Students do not understand how body systems work together in harmony. D. teaches clothing construction. It is difficult for students to comprehend what garment pieces look like before they are sewn together. S. teaches Language Arts. She wants her students to understand elements of poetry and how they fit together. The brain connects the concepts of inside the body (body systems) and outside the body (clothing). S. wove poetry about the 5 senses through the exhibit. The exhibit connects pieces inside and outside the body with the literary pieces of poetry – triangulation!

The exhibit has many interactive pieces. It is designed for a middle school and high school audience, although other age groups can participate fully. Viewers are invited to participate by seeing fabric textures, smelling fabric, tasting, hearing a tuning fork, touching the museum objects and interacting with them. Labels can be picked up and manipulated. Many labels ask questions, inviting the viewer to seek answers by observing the objects. Participants can form a flat sleeve pattern piece into a sleeve and insert it in the bodice, draw a pattern piece and pull a string to gather fabric.

We’ve layered textures, objects, text and activities to demonstrate how “pieces make the whole”. The exhibit is an example of different subjects (health, family and consumer sciences, language arts) coming together to form a unifying concept. Each subject area is taught by one of the groups’ teachers. The display directly relates to what is taught in the classroom and can be used to introduce the “pieces and the whole” concept. The concept can be revisited and built upon often during the school year. We think the collaboration produced a rich, multi-layered presentation that is much greater than what we could do alone (pieces make the whole). It has been a joy to explore object-based lessons using museum artifacts in a collaborative environment.