‘Open Door, Explore’ Self-Programmed Wednesdays at

The Manchester Museum

Living Cultures & Manchester Gallery - KS4

(Booking Essential)

This activity will utilise enquiry based learning skills and critical thinking to explore a topic on museum

galleries. Students can utilise these skills to extract useful and relevant information from objects and

displays in order to apply them to their own learning, at their own level.

The Living Cultures gallery on floor one explores the anthropological material culture from around the

world. The collection is mainly from areas outside Europe, namely Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceania.

While The Manchester Gallery, also on floor one, explores 4 themes: journeys, our environment, the

Museum and collectors. It allows students to discover the stories behind our objects and the journeys that

have brought them to Manchester, which often mirror the journeys of people and communities.

This activity requires your students to critically evaluate the galleries and how effective they are at

providing information for them as individuals. Highlight a topic they are studying to focus them on the

galleries throughout the activity.

Below are some instructions on how to engage your students on the gallery:

1. Split the class into two groups – each group will focus on either the Living Cultures gallery or the

Manchester gallery

2. Instruct each student to make a list of their preferences about how the information is presented in

their allocated gallery with reference to the topic in mind and whether or not the galleries heightens

their interest in the topic. Allow approximately 10 minutes for this.

3. For a further 5 minutes ask students to work in pairs and create either a mind-map or a list of

features they believe creates interest and curiosity depending on their own preferences: are they

similar or different? Why might this be?

4. Gather the students together and collect feedback to determine if any features are universally

preferred and what works well in the spaces with the topics they are exploring. Encourage

discussion, for example: do certain elements work well in exploring the history of Manchester that

would not work when identifying with other cultural beliefs and objects?

5. For the remaining time (approx 10 minutes) Ask students to choose an object from one of the

galleries that might inspire them to do more research on that topic. Encourage students to sketch

this (or if you are comfortable with technology – to take a photograph on their mobile phone) and

share their reasons for choosing it with the group.

Materials required for this activity (not provided):

Paper

Pencils

Post-visit suggestion:

In small groups back in the classroom students could create a display proposal to make the objects more

relevant to their experiences and anything they are currently studying in class.

o This will include:

Identifying a theme to connect their chosen objects

Re-writing labels to enhance understanding of that theme

Imagining new ways of displaying chosen objects to highlight the topic

Have you remembered to book your ‘Open Door, Explore’ Self Programmed activities with our Bookings Officer on 0161 275 2630? You can also request to use our lunch room for your group. Risk Assessments are available on the website. Also, please check for any suggested materials that you may need to bring with you on the day.

Position the above logo on any additional sheets for students.