What is Museum Box:
Museum Box is a free online website that
provides a space for students to build up an argument or description of an
event, topic, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box.
Students can display anything from text files, images to movies and web links.
Students can also view and comment on the museum boxes created by others.
Introduction to Museum Box: http://museumbox.e2bn.org/about/
contact email: email@example.com
Box allows students the opportunity to complete creative projects. Boxes can contain up to eight topic cubes, but students can choose
fewer based on the learning needs. The cubes can be opened to display more
content about the topic and the cubes can be layered to create even more
content areas. Students
can incorporate images, video, audio, text, PowerPoint presentations, and
external links within a Museum Box project. Museum Box could be great for group
work. For example, with complex themes such as the Civil War or World War II,
students could be divided to complete different "cubes" for a whole
class assignment to complete it collaboratively.
Schools can set up administrator accounts for
the Museum Box site. The admin can create student user accounts, create teacher
accounts, and moderate student work. Here is the link for creating the admin
This account also is the admin for the
websites Story Creator and Mood Creator.
Both the administrator of Museum Box account
and teachers added to the account can approve, reject, edit or delete boxes
that students have created. Any approved student work can be viewed by the
public at the Museum Box site and can be found when searching by school.
Example Museum Boxes:
Lesson Plan Ideas:
Information Literacy Lesson Plan using Museum Box
Museum Box Curriculum Ideas
- Students could complete
"cubes" for different important people within a time period for
- In Language Arts classes,
students could complete a Museum Box for the different aspects of a character
in a fictional story (strengths, weaknesses, beliefs, etc.).
- For Art classes, students could
complete projects based on art periods, artistic styles, groups of artists, and
different elements of art.
- Students could complete a Museum
Box for a Science classification project.
- In Math classes, students could
complete a Museum Box for different geometry aspects (one for a triangle,
- For literature assignments,
students could create a project utilizing video clips, short passages, and
other text for different authors.
- Elementary School students can
use this format for a book report or book review, guided by a Teacher Created
- Could also house electronic
portfolios documenting student work/progress.
- It’s free
- Museum Box provides a unique
method for students to create projects.
- Museum Box allows for school
admin of users and content
- It provides a new twist for
research papers and thesis papers.
- Museum Box allows students to use
a variety of information to complete the project instead of a limited format
like traditional papers.
- While completing a project that
utilized Museum Box, students will have to practice organization skills to
complete the task.
- Museum Box can be utilized as a
- Can be implemented in a
Teacher-Assisted Center in an Elementary School classroom
- All of the MB’s created by
students can be viewed in one place by teachers on the admin side of the
website once they have been submitted by the student.
- Museum Box utilizes a very
complex layering system that may be too difficult for some students to use.
- This would be better suited for
secondary students instead of elementary students. Some middle school students
may struggle with this tool.
- Museum Box has a bit of a
learning curve works better in some browsers than others.
- Because a Museum Box can be so
complex it can be very time consuming to create.
- I found Museum Box to be somewhat
limited in how it displays information. For example, it does not allow for
embeds from other sites such as YouTube or Blabberize.
- I found Museum Box to be somewhat
limiting in how the completed boxes are shared with others. They can only be
viewed in the Museum Box Gallery by school once they have been approved by the
teacher. There is no embed code or other method of sharing.
- When a student submits a Museum
Box for review, it can take several days for the review process. During that
time students cannot see or edit their Museum Box.
YouTube Museum Box Tutorial