Middle and High School Students

Discover the historical context. Create the future.

Engage and empower your students with these field trip options. Register in advance for a student workshop or self-guided iPod tour and take advantage of our free in-gallery activities.

Facing Freedom Student Workshop

Recommended for grades 7 to 12
75-minute experience per class. Cost: $5 per student. Make a reservation.

Based on the Facing Freedom in America exhibition, this workshop encourages critical thought about freedom and issues of social justice in American history, particularly in the areas of workers’ rights, armed conflict, public protest, and race and citizenship. Students become historians as they analyze and discuss objects and then add their own voices to the exhibition—curating a display case filled with their selected artifacts and handwritten interpretive text.

Advance reservations required. This workshop is available Monday through Friday and can accommodate ten to sixty-five students per day.

Audio Experiences

Grades 6 to 12
Make the most of your visit with our self-guided iPod tours. Choose from three tours: In Our Own Words, Chicago Authored, and Crossroads Authored. Advance reservations required. Cost: $2 per iPod. Capacity: 45 users. Learn more.

Conversation Starters

Grades 6 to 12
Enrich your visit to the Chicago: Crossroads of America exhibition with these role-play activities. Free and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

“L” Cards

Climb aboard Chicago’s first “L” car and imagine riding home from a visit to the 1893 world’s fair in Jackson Park. Using character cards, students assume turn-of-the-century personas and engage their seatmates in conversations about their favorite parts of the fair.

Jazz Talk

Take a seat in the Jazz and Blues Club and use slang cards to have a Roaring Twenties–style conversation.