Mission Statement of SEEC’s Educational Outreach Program
The mission of SEEC’s Educational Outreach Program is to share its museum-based approach to learning, in order to influence the practices used in educating young children.

Creating Collections with Young Children
February 9, 2008
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Learning Through Objects
May 22 & 23, 2008
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Through educational outreach, the museum education team shares its expertise  in using museum exhibits and artwork in conjunction with children’s literature and everyday objects to teach young children.  SEEC offers information about its museum-based approach to learning through seminars and professional training classes, written materials, teaching kits, and customized consulting.

Overview of SEEC Seminars:

Learning Through Objects: Museums and Young Children

During this two-day program, participants learn how museum objects, such as paintings, sculptures, an African headrest, and an old-time chestnut roaster, can help children as young as two or three understand their world.  The program features hands-on exercises with museum objects, lectures, discussions, and gallery experiences that introduce early childhood educators to the magic of museums and help museum educators forge more creative encounters with the youngest museum-goers.

Creating Collections with Young Children

Participants learn about children as natural collectors and discover new ways to nurture this innate curiosity by creating collections in the classroom that combine literature, art, and objects.  Through hands-on experiences and museum visits, this one-day seminar introduces teaching strategies that encourage the use of collections to help children develop sorting, classification, observation, and analytic skills.  Teachers learn to present new opportunities for children to explore the world through real objects and create meaningful collections in the classroom. This one-day workshop is an excellent introduction to the magic of museums

Professional Development Series

Museum Magic: Museum-Based Approach to Teaching
History, Math, and Literacy to Young Children

This four-part series introduces educators to SEEC’s method of teaching through actual museum visits and encounters with real objects, children’s literature, and art.  In this course, participants learn to plan effective museum visits and classroom-based lessons to support learning in content areas such as literacy, math, and history.

Customized Consulting

SEEC offers consulting that is customized to each client’s needs.  SEEC works with a wide range of organizations, from museums planning early childhood initiatives to community-based organizations seeking expertise in early childhood learning.  Consultants from SEEC also support schools interested in implementing more effective field trips or districts seeking an arts-based or object-based approach to learning in their curriculum.  We offer a wide variety of services that are customized to fit the needs of organizations interested in teaching young children in the museum environment or using museum-based methodology.

Customized consulting may include:

• Licensing of the SEEC curriculum, Museum Magic
• Conceptual planning and analysis for the development of new programs
• Docent training
• Museum program development
• Development of thematic resource kits
• Professional development for museum educators
• Customized lesson plans
• Field trips
• Model lessons with a SEEC master teacher
• Teacher training or in-service training (early childhood and elementary school levels)
• Exhibit evaluation (from the point of view of preschool children)

Costs are determined by the scope of the project.  For more information on SEEC’s consulting services, please contact Sharon Shaffer, Executive Director, at 202.633.1399/shaffers@si.edu.

Customized Thematic Resource Kits

Teaching Kits:

Packaged in an easy-to-handle art portfolio, each teaching kit includes a variety of materials necessary for a successful lesson employing SEEC’s museum-based philosophy.  Each kit contains art prints, children’s literature, and objects along with lesson plans appropriate for the classroom or museum.

A World of Lines

A World of Lines starts with a children’s classic in literature, Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson.  Children explore the many types of lines that make up the world through simple objects such as yarn, string, and pipe cleaners.  Reproductions of art works by such artists as Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, and Wayne Thiebaud broaden the exploration.  Lesson plans are included with language, science, music, and motor activities as well as extensive art enrichment activities.

The Rainforest

This ecology-based kit provides a unique look at a popular subject.  Lynne Cherry’s The Great Kapok Tree provides an emotional connection to this unique environment. Children explore artists’ perspectives on the rainforest by investigating the work of such artists as Henri Rousseau, Martin Johnson Heade, Frederick Edwin Church, and Frank Stella.  Simple objects such as artificial fern leaves offer multi-sensory experiences that make the rainforest environment come alive for children.  Lesson plans are included with language, science, music, and motor activities as well as extensive art enrichment activities.

To order A World of Lines or The Rainforest, visit our Store to place an order

For more information on customizing a thematic resource kit, please call Sharon Shaffer, Executive Director, at 202.633.1399 or by sending an e-mail to shaffers@si.edu.

Licensing of Curriculum

Museum Magic is a unique museum-based curriculum that serves as the foundation for the SEEC program.  Through licensing, Museum Magic can offer a framework for museums or schools developing a new object-based or arts-based program for young children.  It is also possible for SEEC to design resource materials to support a new educational initiative.

For more information on licensing SEEC Curriculum, please contact Sharon Shaffer, Executive Director, at 202.633.1399 or by sending an e-mail to shaffers@si.edu.

Join the SEEC Educational Outreach Program listserv to receive information on upcoming trainings and other opportunities related to early childhood education.  To join the listserv simply send an email with your email address included in the text section to museumed@si.edu

Sharon Shaffer, PhD
Executive Director, SEEC

Dr. Sharon Shaffer is the Executive Director for the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center (SEEC), a model program in museum-based education for preschoolers and kindergartners.  As the founding Director for SEEC in 1988, she was given the challenge of developing a program for young children that utilized the rich resources of the Smithsonian Institution and the surrounding museums.  The Smithsonian’s model is built on the most current research in early childhood education and museum practice, leading the field in arts-based education for young children.

Dr. Shaffer oversees the SEEC program, which includes a child development center, preschool, and kindergarten, and provides leadership for educational outreach.  She is responsible for designing seminars for training early childhood educators and museum professionals in object-based learning and arts-centered curriculum, consulting with schools and museums, and presenting at conferences and seminars nationally and internationally.  She has been a guest lecturer for the graduate program in Museum Leadership at Bank Street College, George Washington University, Gallaudet University, and the University of Virginia.

Dr. Shaffer’s formal studies include Elementary Education, Early Childhood Education, and Social Foundations of Education.  Her doctoral research focused on the newly emerging field of preschool programming in traditional art museums. In addition to her work at SEEC, Dr. Shaffer is teaching as an adjunct professor at the University of Virginia.

Contact Dr. Shaffer at shaffers@si.edu 202.633.1399

Museum Education Specialists

Museum Education Specialists at SEEC work to support SEEC classroom teachers by identifying museum objects and exhibits for SEEC children to visit with their classes. Each month they develop and teach museum excursions for SEEC classes. In addition, museum education specialists work on outreach projects such as seminars, resource kits, and docent training programs to share the SEEC method of using art, objects, and children's literature to engage young children in thematic explorations using museum objects.

Ann Caspari
Manager of Museum Programs

Ann Caspari manages the internal operations and leads the team of Museum Education Specialists. Ann joined SEEC as a museum education specialist in the fall of 1999. This year she is working with the Koala and Wallaby classes of preschoolers at American History West. A seasoned museum educator, Ann has a BA in religious studies and cultural anthropology from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and an MAT in Museum Education from The George Washington University. Before joining SEEC, Ann was the school programs coordinator at the National Building Museum. She has worked as a museum educator in a variety of museums including SITES, The Calvert Marine Museum, the Paul Revere House, and the Newport Historical Society.

Contact Ann at CaspariAK@si.edu or by calling 202.633.2944.

Maria del Carmen Cossu
Museum Education Specialist

Maria del Carmen Cossu, a native of Lima, Peru, has been committed to museums and education since 1983. This year she is working with the Cinnamon Bears and Honey Bears classes of preschoolers at American History West. Makaki graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in History from the Catholic University of Peru and an MAT in Museum Education from The George Washington University. Before starting her museum career, she taught elementary and middle school students in Peru. Her museum career started at the Museum of the Central Bank of Peru. She has also worked at the Smithsonian Institution in different positions coordinating partnerships between museums and schools, and at the World Bank Art Program developing international art exhibitions and educational programs for adults and children.

Contact Makaki at CossuM@si.edu or by calling 202.633.2944

Lynann Derrick
Museum Education Specialist

Lynann works directly with the classroom teachers and children of the Infant, Toddler and Two's classes at Natural History and American History East. Twice each month, Lynann visits with each of these classes, taking them on exciting journeys into the museums and galleries here on the National Mall. Lynann has been on staff at SEEC for ten years. She spent five years as a classroom teacher and for the past five years has been on the Museum Education Outreach Team. Prior to working at SEEC she spent several years in Europe teaching English and working with children. She is a native of Texas where she received a BA in Liberal Arts from the University of Texas.

Contact Lynann at DerrickL@si.edu or by calling 202.633.2944

Jane Phelan
Museum Education Specialist

Jane Phelan joined the SEEC museum education team in the spring of 2006, after spending the 2004-05 school year as co-lead teacher of SEEC's dynamic Kindergarten class. She brings her enthusiasm for lifelong learning to her current work as a resource teacher for SEEC. During her more than thirty years' experience in both fine and performing arts, Jane earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from The Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, DC and a Masters in Education from The George Washington University. With a concentration on Integrating the Arts Across the Curriculum, her graduate degree also includes coursework intrinsic to the Museum Education program. Before joining SEEC, Jane spent twenty years as a costume designer for theatre and dance, collaborating on more than one hundred productions. Prior to her theatre design career, Jane studied and taught modern dance for many years. She is currently pursuing certification as a yoga teacher.

Contact Jane at phelanJ@si.edu or by calling 202.633.2944.

Anna Forgerson
Museum Education Specialist

Anna Forgerson is the newest member of SEEC's museum education team. This year, she is working with the Kindergarten class at the Natural History Museum. Anna joined SEEC in the fall of 2005. She began working as a museum educator in 2003 at The Orange County Regional History Center in Orlando, Florida. She graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in history and political science from the University of Central Florida. She plans to begin her Master's Degree in Museum Studies from The George Washington University in the fall of 2008. When Anna first joined SEEC, she was concurrently interning at the National Museum of American History, where she has continued to do special programs in African American History and Culture for adults and children.

Contact Anna at ForgersonA@si.edu or by calling 202.633.1399