A tour of the United States Supreme Court building located in Washington, DC, would make an excellent experiential learning experience for students.

Most educators agree that travel is one of the best methods of experiential learning. And one of the most rewarding destinations for travel for American students is our nation’s capital city, Washington, DC. There are many historic sites to visit in the city, and one of the most impressive is the United States Supreme Court building. This building is the work place of the United States Supreme Court, the highest and most influential court in the nation.

Originally the Supreme Court justices met in a small side chamber in the US Capitol building. By the turn of the 20th century, however, the court had outgrown the space. In 1912, Chief Justice William Howard Taft began advocating for a separate structure to house the justices. Shortly thereafter, architect Cass Gilbert designed a new Supreme Court building in the neoclassical style. Construction began in 1932 and was completed in 1935.

A visit to this impressive building would make an excellent experiential learning experience for students. While there, they can view the actual courtroom where the Supreme Court justices meet. If they time it right, they can even listen to a short lecture conducted by one of the docents. The docent will present interesting information about how the court works. In addition to the Courtroom, portions of the first and ground floors of the building are open to the public. Be sure your students see the John Marshall statue and the numerous portraits and busts of former justices which decorate the hallways.

Your class can learn more about the US Supreme Court at this website: Supreme Court. You can also view this brief 3-minute YouTube video for an overview of the building  (please ignore the commercial at the end).

As always, I urge you to teach a great day!

The author’s husband, Hal Marzell, at the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.

Many teachers include Holocaust education is a part of their educational curriculum. There are many ways to incorporate lessons about the Holocaust into a lesson plan, but one of the best would be a visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum located in Washington, DC.

My husband and I recently spent an entire day exploring this extensive museum. The institution holds a collection of more than 12,750 artifacts; 49 million pages of archival documents; 85,000 historical photographs; a list of over 200,000 registered survivors and their families; 1,000 hours of archival footage; 93,000 library items; and 9,000 oral history testimonies.

When your students enter the permanent exhibit, they will be given an identification card which tells the story of a random victim or survivor of the Holocaust. When they exit the elevators on the fourth floor, they will walk through a chronological depiction of the history of the Holocaust. The depiction starts with the Nazi rise to power led by Adolf Hitler, and additional exhibits explore the topics of Aryan ideology, Kristallnacht, Anti-Semitism, and the American response to Nazi Germany. More exhibits explore Jewish ghettos, the Final Solution, and the liberation of the concentration camps, among other topics. The exhibits conclude with videotaped survivor testimony.

One of the most moving places in the museum,in my opinion, is the Hall of Remembrance. This hall is the USHMM’s official memorial to the victims and survivors of the Holocaust. Here visitors can memorialize the event by lighting a candle, visiting an eternal flame, and reflecting in silence in the brightly lit hexagon-shaped space.

To regulate the number of visitors occupying the space at one time, it is recommended that visitors obtain admission tickets in advance. Tickets are distributed outside the museum beginning at 9:45 am for visits at specified times throughout the day. The museum is open every day except Yom Kippur and Christmas Day. Admission is free.

To learn more about this museum, you and you students can click on the link USHMM.

Author and retired teacher Terry Lee Marzell stands in front of the US Capitol building in Washington, DC.

Most teachers would agree that travel is one of the best methods of experiential learning for our students. And one of the most educational destinations for travel is Washington, DC, our nation’s capital city. There are many great museums and historical sites to visit in the city, but one of the best is the US Capitol.

This iconic structure serves as a symbol for American government, a system of government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The Capitol building has housed the meeting chambers of both the House of Representatives and the Senate for over two hundred years.

The design of the building is an excellent example of 19th-century neoclassical architecture. Design principals embodied in the structure stem from ancient Greece and Rome. The crowning architectural achievement of the building is its dome, constructed from nearly 9,000,000 pounds of ironwork bolted to together. The Capitol Dome just may be the most famous man-made landmark in America.

In addition to its use by Congress, the Capitol serves as a museum of American art and history. Statuary Hall is a chamber of the building devoted to statues of famous Americans. Some of the most interesting include Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks, Thomas Edison, Sacagawea, Will Rogers, Helen Keller, and King Kamehameha I of Hawaii.

Terry Lee Marzell enjoys a tour of the US Capitol conducted by an intern from the office of her Congressman, Gil Cisneros.

The best way for teachers and students to enjoy a public tour of the US Capitol is by making a reservation in advance. Although a limited number of same-day tickets are available, expect the lines to be long, especially in spring and summer. A tour can also be arranged through the office of your Congressman or state senator. The guided tour doesn’t include the Senate and House galleries. However, your Congressman can arrange a pass to these view these chambers when Congress is not in session. Best of all, tours of the US Capitol are free!

To learn more about the Capitol building, consult this link: About the US Capitol. To explore a virtual tour of the building, click on this link: US Capitol Virtual Tour.

Happy traveling!

View of the lunar landing module on display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum located in Washington, DC.

There is no doubt among teachers that experience is one of the best ways to learn, and most educators would agree that a visit to a museum is a terrific learning experience. One of the most exciting museums for students to visit is Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum located in Washington, DC.

One of the most spectacular displays at the museum, in my opinion, is the lunar landing module. This spacecraft, frankly pretty fragile in appearance, was designed to carry astronauts David Scott and James Irwin on their Apollo 15 mission to the moon. However, NASA decided that Apollo 15 and subsequent flights would be outfitted with lunar roving vehicles, so this module was replaced with the Lunar Rover.

Also on display is a replica of a lunar space suit and a model of the Telstar satellite. Of special interest is an actual moon rock, that your students are allowed to touch! And for Star Trek fans, Paramount Studios’ filming model of the starship USS Enterprise is grandly on display.

Personally, I have always been a fan of planetariums, and this museum is host to a fine one: the Albert Einstein Planetarium. For a small fee, we enjoyed a half-hour show entitled Journey to the Stars. We were treated to extraordinary images and physics-based simulations that helped us understand our universe better. And students will love that the presentation is narrated by Whoopi Goldberg.

In addition to these space-related artifacts, the museum boasts wonderful exhibits documenting the history of air travel. Included are Charles Lindbergh’s plane The Spirit of St. Louis; Wilbur and Orville Wright’s 1903 Wright Plane; the Lockheed Vega piloted by flying ace Amelia Earhart; and a 25-foot model of the dirigible Hindenburg. I especially appreciated “Black Wings,” an exhibit about the contributions of African Americans to aviation.

You and your students would definitely find a visit to this Smithsonian museum an invaluable learning experience. However, if you are unable to travel to Washington, DC, the exhibits can be explored online at this link: Air and Space Museum.

Happy traveling!

Photographs of the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington National Cemetery, taken by the author on her recent visit to Washington, DC.

Most educators would agree that one of the most efficient methods of experiential learning is travel. One of the best destinations for travel is our nation’s capital city, Washington, DC. This city is home to a multitude of worthwhile museums and historical sites. Among these is Arlington National Cemetery.

The cemetery is located in Arlington County, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from the capital city. The hallowed grounds span 624 acres, and house the remains of our nation’s military dead and other notables from American history. Names familiar to history students are too numerous to name.

My husband and I were fortunate enough to visit this important historical site last month. We were there one day before the burial of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. He’s just one of many Supreme Court Justices buried at Arlington, including Warren E. Burger, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, and William Rehnquist. 

While we were at the cemetery, we visited the somber final resting places of President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, the simple grave sites of his brothers Senators Robert and Edward Kennedy, and the sacred Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. President Kennedy isn’t the only president interred at Arlington. President William Taft is also buried there.

Also buried at Arlington are at least three soldiers who were former schoolteachers: General of the Armies John J. Pershing; Commander of the Flying Tigers of World War II Claire Lee Chennault; and US Navy Rear Admiral Simon Newcomb. Christa McAulifee, the first Teacher in Space, is interred elsewhere, but two of the astronauts who perished with her during the 1986 Challenger disaster are.

If you or your students are unable to travel to the Washington, DC, area in person, you can still explore Arlington National Cemetery through their website. Simply click on this link: Arlington Cemetery.