Play the Past: The Field Trip for the 21st Century Learner

This groundbreaking project is creating a new model for school field trips, using mobile and web technologies to capitalize on the natural behaviors and learning styles of today's students. Serving approximately 7,000 students annually, Play the Past demonstrates how museums can use technology to create self-directed, personalized, responsive field trip experiences that deepen students' connection to history while honing their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Upon entering the museum's Then Now Wow exhibit gallery, students receive handheld devices pre-installed with the mobile application. The application enhances students' experiences and promotes interaction with the physical exhibit by encouraging them to answer questions, solve problems, and collect digital artifacts related to the exhibit and items in MNHS's vast collections. This "digital backpack" of collected artifacts is then accessed back in the classroom by teachers and students, further expanding on the field trip experience and enhancing student learning. MNHS recently added a new tool for Play the Past teachers while at the museum. MNHS now provides teachers with iPads to access their students' digital backpacks while in the gallery, allowing teachers to see students' progress in real time and students to explore the resources of the digital backpacks before reaching home. Over 90 percent of teachers reported that this new tool helped them to understand what their students were doing during Play the Past. Over 95 percent of teachers reported that their students were either extremely or very engaged with Play the Past. MNHS is also working with Dakota artists and activists to add more American Indian content to Play the Past, layering on quests that explore Dakota art, language, and food in the tipi area of the Then Now Wow exhibit. Based on the overall success of the program, Play the Past was recently awarded a grant in March 2015 for $199,936 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to expand the program from the Then Now Wow exhibit to also include the Minnesota's Greatest Generation exhibit.