In order to provide venues for pedagogical engagement, we included a set of guidelines and general ideas for creating classroom-based exercises for students to engage with the materials in this exhibit. Overall, these activities should be used as guidelines for educators and as initial ideas for broader and more nuanced educational materials. Each activity is provided by the students in charge of the curated materials.

What you need: A device to do some research.

Questions: Which object(s) in the exhibition caught your attention? Why? Did it reveal something you didn’t know? What did it make you think about? What was it appealing about it? Discuss it with a classmate.Think about the year in which that object was created. It is important to understand that these objects don’t live on their own; they are influenced by the historical context of the time and when gathered with other objects they shape the study of history. What was happening nationally or internationally that could have caused the creation of that object? Why is it important that we understand the context? Does it reveal something that hasn’t been discussed broadly?

In pairs record an interview with a classmate on what they can see from an object in an exhibit. Begin by picking out aspects which are familiar to you, eg. names of places, symbols, events. Go deeper into these aspects, discussing what you already knew and how this object added to or changed your understanding.

Examples of interview questions:

What stands out in this object to you? Is there anything you recognise? What do you already know about this aspect? What questions would you need to ask to be able to contextualize this object?

The Napoleons: There are several “Napoleons” in history, and we tend to conflate them with the portrait of the guy on the horse. In groups, ask students to write out the reigns of Napoleon I, II, and III and the time period each ruled. Students will then work together to list major events that happened after each rule.

Ask students to think about the ways in which the the Anglo-Texan founder/savior narratives, Santa Anna's role and/or the exercise on sovereignty and interventionism can be re-imagined based on the 1842 Map of the United States included in this exhibit. Encourage your students to think about how this is still a highly relevant issue today.

Assign students a role of a character represented in any of the primary sources on display, and give them slight background information regarding their social standing and the historical context of the time period when the primary source was created.

Then, tell the students to place themselves in the shoes of that character and write a short letter to themselves/a friend/a family member on how the “current” times have affected them and on what they believe would be the next step that character took based on their place in history during the specific context.

Once the students have written their short letters, have them quickly research the character they were representing (10 minute Google search) and compare what they believed would happen to the character vs. what actually occurred in history.