Students need to have established map reading and mapping skills.

Ask students to record (all or some portion divided by groups of students) the locations from which the exhibit banjos were collected.

Using a regional map (add insert maps for out-of-country locations), have students locate the origin of each banjo. This would be a good place to utilize drawing or digital photographs (check with museum personnel for approval of photographs) to complete a "Map Skills/Banjo Bulletin Board Display.”

Geography: 3.6

Students should have experience with story creation and the use of writing prompts.

Give students the writing prompt and inform them that they will be creating a story about an individual who makes a banjo.

Remind students to look closely at the exhibit for story ideas. They will need to notice materials that could be accessed for the making of a banjo by the character in their story.

Create, share, and edit the stories that are written.

English: 3.8

Students need to have developed concepts of consumer and producer. They need to know how to identify each.

For each display in the exhibit, students need to make notes on the producer of the instrument and consumers for the instrument. Consumer roles may include purchasers (perhaps by barter) or listeners. A question to answer is: In what ways were banjo players paid during the 1800s?

(A possibility is to ask students to sketch each display or a display from particular time periods to use with the subsequent class matrix.)

Develop a class matrix based on the information collected. The left axis could be instruments within a particular time period. The columns would have headers of consumer and producer in which could be listed the appropriate data.

Science: 3.5