Lesson Plans and Activities
Entire units and lesson activities covering a wide range of topics, including early Birmingham history, connecting STEM and social studies, and the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham!
Gallery Guide
Click below for a virtual museum tour broken down into short episodes. Check back for more to be added soon!
Episode 1: Intro to Vulcan Park and Museum
Episode 2: The Iron Making Process and Early Birmingham
Episode 3: Birmingham During The Great Depression and WWII
Episode 4: The Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham
Vulcan's Educational Toolkit
- Bolt One: Education Programs Guide
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Through our education programs guide, teachers can learn more about all there is to offer for educational programming at Vulcan Park and Museum. Our programming including but not limited to guided tours, live performances, interactive exhibits is aligned with the Alabama Course of Study.
- Bolt Two: Teacher Guide
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Through exhibit descriptions and pre- and post-visit classroom activities, our Teacher Guide empowers teachers planning a visit to Vulcan Park and Museum. Teachers will love the guide’s easy-to-use format and well-researched overview of our region’s history.
- Bolt Three: Alabama Course of Study Correlations
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Our programming aligned with the Alabama Course of Study is listed here by grade.
Teacher Symposium Resources
- 2019 SYMPOSIUM
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This one-day workshop focused on teaching tools to meet current needs in social studies instruction through civics. Teachers learned to strengthen their students’ civic literacy skills through primary source analysis and cultivating disciplinary thinking skills. Primary source material focuses on the Women’s Suffrage movement and Anti-suffrage movements in Alabama and across the country, plus other battles for voting rights. Women’s Suffrage and universal voting rights is also the topic of an exhibition hosted by Vulcan Park and Museum which opened in January 2020. Featured workshop activities support current College and Career Ready Standards plus the C3 framework by the National Council for Social Studies.
- 2018 SYMPOSIUM
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This one-day workshop focused on teaching tools to meet current needs in social studies instruction through civics. Teachers learned to strengthen their students’ civic literacy skills through primary source analysis and cultivating disciplinary thinking skills. Primary source material focuses on Supreme Court cases that originated in Alabama
which is the topic of a travelling exhibit hosted by Vulcan Park and Museum – “Alabama Justice: the Cases and Faces that Changed a Nation”. Featured workshop activities support current College and Career Ready Standards plus the C3 Framework by the National Council for Social Studies. - 2017 SYMPOSIUM
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Vulcan Park and Museum will host its annual teacher symposium and workshop presented by the Birmingham Bar Foundation on November 8, 2017. The symposium will focus on civic education and contemporary public issues. Area teachers are invited to attend. Dr. Jeremiah Clabough, professor at UAB’s School of Education, will head up the workshop. The 2017 keynote speaker is Guin Robinson, M.Ed. Guin currently serves at the Director of Community Outreach at Jefferson State Community College and formerly served as the Mayor of Pell City from 1999-2004.
- 2016 SYMPOSIUM
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Vulcan Park and Museum hosted its annual teacher symposium and workshop on November 2, 2016. The focus of this year’s symposium was Civic Education. Area teachers heard from former State Representative Paul DeMarco, UAB professor, Dr. Jeremiah Clabough, and Michael R. Cloninger, Middle Years Programme Coordinator for Jefferson County International Baccalaurate School. This year’s event was presented by The Birmingham Bar Foundation.
- 2015 SYMPOSIUM
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Vulcan Park and Museum hosted a CCRS symposium and workshop on October 28, 2015. During this symposium teachers heard from the State of Alabama School Superintendent, Dr. Tommy Bice, as well as UAB professor, Dr. Jeremiah Clabough. To access the symposium handouts, see below.