From our very origins, the human journey has been shaped by migration.  Migration is part of our shared human experience and humans have migrated for various, often interacting reasons, over time.  This Learning Lab collection engages learners in grades 6-12 with the topic of migration by asking the complex question: "Why do people leave their homes?" It invites users to explore objects from the ancient world, primarily in the collection of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art, across social studies, world history, and art history curricula to understand some of the factors that shaped decisions to migrate from one place to another at a particular moment in time.  In particular, the collection introduces the Silk Roads, one of the most ancient and wide-spread examples of migration across the Eastern Hemisphere, where traders and artisans traveled back and forth taking ideas and products with them in search of economic opportunity. Learners will discover the impacts of migration through the lens of the Sogdians, a community of merchants originally from present-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and their influences upon visual culture.  This collection is teacher-driven and includes several activities that students can complete asynchronously as well.  Click on each resource in sequential order for instructions on how to set up each teaching strategy.

Tags:  #AsiaTeachers; Agency by Design; artifact; Chalk Talk; Connect/Extend/Challenge; cultural exchange; Freer; Parts/Purposes/Complexities; Project Zero; object analysis; Silk Road; Sogdians; Tang dynasty; trade; thinking routines; Think/Pair/Share; Visible Thinking; visual culture