What is the best way to tell the story of the South Asian community’s experience in our community, town, city, or province?
Students will discuss their local community, town, city or province with an emphasis on the existence of South Asian culture and create a museum exhibit (physical or virtual) looking at items such as history, culture, geography and mapping.
Design a South Asian Museum Exhibit (DOCX | 194 KB)
Design a South Asian Museum Exhibit (PDF | 134 KB)
Note: Online resources for students are listed under specific activities.
Throughout this series of lessons, students will be creating a museum focusing on the South Asian community within the class’s chosen context (such as their neighbourhood, town, city, or province). For this kick-off, you’ll be looking at students’ prior knowledge of both community and museums.
Start the activity by asking students to define community. They may provide examples (e.g., their neighbourhood, culture, school or religion), characteristics (e.g., sharing a common interest, a sense of belonging) or even stories. Explain to students that community is complex and we are all part of multiple communities. Communities are people.
Once students have defined community, ask them what they know or wonder about the South Asian community. Depending on your class location and demographics, students may have a lot or a little to say. You may share pieces of the South Asian community definition (below) to prompt more discussion. The goal of this activity is to identify areas within the South Asian community on which to focus their museum project.
The South Asian community encompasses people who are immigrants or have ties to a series of countries located in South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal and the Maldives. The South Asian community also includes regional groups, such as people from the Punjab region, or religious groups, such as people who are Muslim or Sikh. (More information can be found in the South Asian Canadian backgrounder, which can be given to students to help guide their research.)
Resources for students on the South Asian community:
“A good display should convey information; use language the visitor can understand and have something interesting to say. This display should include images, objects and an invitation for the visitor to do something, such as to think further or take an action.” Royal BC Museum
Introduce students to virtual museums (using the resources provided below or having students do their own online research) and what they look like. This is also a great opportunity for students to use tablets/iPads and do augmented reality museum tours, which will allow students to understand what a museum has and provide them with some options for what they could include in their own museums.
Some virtual museums tours for students to explore:
After the virtual tour, have a class discussion. Questions could include:
Resources for museum discussions/research:
Have students break into small groups to brainstorm some criteria for successful museums. Try to answer the question, “What makes an effective museum exhibit?”
Have each group share their top three criteria and write them on the board. If duplicates are shared, add a star next to them. From the generated list, select 5-10 criteria to guide their exhibit creation.
Explain to students that this activity will focus on researching one element of South Asian Canadian history, heritage and culture within a chosen location. (Note: You may want to choose the location based on what you know about your city/region’s demographics.)
Form students into groups of four to seven students to generate ideas for exhibits. For example, they may have a foods exhibit, a sports exhibit and an arts exhibit. Alternatively, they use time periods.
Bring the class back together and have the groups share their ideas to generate a list of exhibit ideas. Once the list has been generated, have the class vote on which exhibits will fit together well for a museum, choosing the same number of exhibits as there are groups. The class may want to form a cohesive museum by having each group take a time period or a different topic, such as food, sports, clothing and so on.
Have students form new groups based on shared exhibit interests. If there are many people interested in one topic, you can choose to do two exhibits on that topic or assign students to other groups.
As a class, brainstorm what roles would be helpful for their museum to succeed. For example, students may choose to have someone tackle the artistic portion while another student may want to be responsible for writing. Here are some role ideas:
Explain to students that although they each have roles, they should also collaborate on all elements of the museum. Once the roles have been determined, have students choose who will take on which role in their groups.
As a class, work to generate a few broader questions that could be addressed in each exhibit (such as “I wonder how South Asian Canadian culture has changed since the first South Asians came to Canada”).
Have each group draft three to five questions on their topic. Use sentence starters such as:
Have groups discuss or peer review each other’s questions, with the goal of each group choosing one inquiry question to focus their exhibit on.
As a class, discuss the importance of properly citing where their museum elements come from.
Using their chosen inquiry question, have students do some initial research to identify what type of exhibit they will make (you may also make this choice for the class) and how they will structure their exhibit.
Have students refer to the class exhibit criteria as they make choices and begin development.
Have students start to research content for their museums in their groups, aiming to answer their inquiry question. Students may generate additional questions as they do their research. Encourage students to use online sources, books, interviews with community members (if appropriate) and any other resources available to them. They may also have some speakers (e.g., from the community or the school) in their museum project.
Once students have completed their exhibits, have them create an item to advertise their exhibit, such as a bookmark, poster, or magnet.
To conclude the lesson, ask students to reflect on the following questions:
Evaluate students’ participation throughout class using a rubric. For example, single-point rubric (docx).
Use the class-created criteria to evaluate the exhibits. Note: This can also be used as a peer assessment tool.
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