PROJECTS

PRIMARY & SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Suitcases full of stories

The ‘Suitcases Full of Stories’ project was developed for the higher years of primary schools and the lower two years of secondary schools. The teacher receives a teaching package for the class before the museum visit. The package contains suggestions for lessons and as well as information about the Battle of Arnhem.

There is an interactive introduction to the Battle of Arnhem in the museum, with information about the ‘suitcases’ project. Then the students go off on a discovery tour. In each suitcase there is a story written by a child in 1944, as well as ‘quests’ and clues. Teachers are provided with information to help them discuss the visit with their students when they are back in the classroom.

Education: secondary schools

We also have a great deal to offer older secondary school students (years 9 to 12). We have had good experiences with ‘active didactics’. For example, students can easily visualize themselves being in tricky situations and faced with difficult dilemmas. They do their own research into the story of Operation Market Garden, and they learn to place the Battle of Arnhem in the overall context of the Second World War.

Teachers are sent material for a preparatory lesson to be given in school prior to the museum visit. We greet the students in the education room in the museum, where they get an interactive introduction, along with an account by an eyewitness. Then the students get on with their assignments. Afterwards we help them to place the information they have collected in the historical context.

Eyewitness' stories

You can read a book or watch a film, but eyewitnesses’ accounts make the most profound impression. People who actually lived through Operation Market Garden are happy to tell their stories, in either the museum or the classroom. Students always listen breathlessly.