Elementary schools, grades 8-10
A visit to the National Museum enhances students' understanding of the history, society, and culture of the country. Several themes can be chosen for the museum visit, and teachers are encouraged to explore themes suitable for middle school, with adjustments possible for high school students. A museum visit is an ideal way to enable students to gain a better understanding of what they have read about in books.
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Making of a Nation - a guide through the permanent exhibition
The visit emphasizes allowing students to experience the National Museum as an interesting place to visit and to become acquainted with the permanent exhibition Making of a Nation. The aim is to promote social awareness among students and enhance their ability to understand their environment, society, history, and culture through exhibition artifacts and the stories they preserve.ýning Þjóðminjasafnsins er. Leitast er við að efla samfélagsvitund nemendanna og ýta undir hæfni þeirra til að skilja veruleikann, umhverfið, samfélagið, söguna og menninguna út frá sýningargripum og þeim frásögnum sem þeir geyma.
Book a school visitTechnology in the 20th century, life and war
In the visit, the focus is on technological changes throughout the 20th century, emphasizing significant developments such as job specialization and the evolution of commerce and consumer culture. The impact of these developments on lifestyle and daily culture is discussed, along with how the interaction of various factors, including wartime industrialization, made the century distinct from earlier ones. Students have the opportunity for independent exploration. They can handle various artifacts from the 20th century in the museum's touch collection, work on short tasks in small groups, and explore the museum's main exhibition in their own way at the end.
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Special requests
What is the students' interests? Could a visit to the National Museum add something fun and new to the subject? Museum teachers can design visits in collaboration with teachers and link it to most subjects. Museum teachers give more information on request, send an email to: kennsla@thjodminjasafn.is
Book a school visitProject work on your own
Teachers are welcome to take their group on a visit to work on a project without the assistance of a museum teacher. It is possible to discuss most topics based on the museum's exhibitions and artifacts, offering a variety of methods for knowledge acquisition and creativity.
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Rainbow thread
The Rainbow Thread is a queer guide through the exhibition The Making of a Nation. It covers the queer history of Iceland. The term queer here refers to gender and sexuality that do not conform to the norms and customs of their time, including people who today might be called trans, intersex, non-binary, gay, bisexual, pansexual, or asexual. The goal of the Rainbow Thread is to show how ideas about gender and sexuality have taken various forms throughout different times, and to encourage asking questions, examining the unsaid, and promoting critical thinking. It is beneficial to give students a simple task after the visit. For example: What surprised me the most? What do I want to know more about? What is missing from the Rainbow Thread?
Book a school visitLýðveldið Ísland 80 ára
Í tilefni 80 ára afmælis lýðveldisins er nemendum unglingastigs boðið í heimsókn í Þjóðminjasafnið að skoða sérsýningarnar Þjóð í mynd: Myndefni frá stofnun lýðveldis 1944 og Lögréttutjöldin með safnkennara. Skoðun á grunnsýningu safnsins er fléttað inn í heimsóknina, einkum tímabilinu 1800-2000. Þjóð í mynd: Sýningin fjallar um þjóðaratkvæðagreiðslu og hátíðarhöld við stofnun lýðveldis á Íslandi 1944. Á sýningunni eru kvikmyndabrot í bland við ljósmyndir, gripi og frásagnir fólks af atburðunum. Markmiðið er að varpa ljósi á þátttöku almennings í atburðunum og andrúmsloftið sem ríkti í kringum þá. Lykilhugtök í heimsókninni: Stjórnkerfi, vald, sjálfstæði, lýðveldi, borgaravitund, jafnrétti, heimsstyrjöldin síðari og staða Íslands og Danmerkur m.t.t. hernáms, sambandslaganna, vöruskorts o.fl.
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Guiding light of museum educators
From the National Curriculum
Educationalobjectives and cultural values
- Student's ability to understand reality: The student's ability to understand reality (the environment, society, history, and culture) they are born into is based on their experiences. Social studies aim to enhance this ability by broadening and deepening the student's experiential world.
- Student's self-understanding: The student's ability to understand themselves is based on the image they form of themselves (and others) in their own mind. Social studies aim to enhance this ability by broadening and deepening the student's mental world.
- Student's ability to form and develop relationships: The student's ability to form and develop relationships with others is based on the social circles they participate in. Social studies aim to enhance this ability by engaging the student in their social world, the values, and the rules that prevail there. (p. 195)
The following competencies in social studies, according to the National Curriculum, can be trained during the visit. The student should be able to:
- Demonstrate understanding of their local area, explain its context in relation to the environment, history, culture, arts, social activities, and employment.
- Acquire, apply, reflect on, and evaluate information regarding cultural and social issues presented in oral presentations, conversations, texts, and visual formats.
- Debate important concepts used in discussions of cultural and social issues.
- Demonstrate knowledge and critical perspective on periods, events, people, cultural relations, and development processes at various times referenced in societal debates.
- Understand how history is shaped by environmental factors, social structures, societal movements, and ideologies, as well as deliberate actions and chance.
- Explain and debate the formation and development of Icelandic society considering domestic and international influencing factors.
- Empathize with people of different backgrounds and perspectives.
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