CEE Conference Post #1 - National World War II Museum visit

While my main focus was the CEE Conference, I was very interested in visiting the World War II Museum while I was in New Orleans. I visited there one time 20+ years ago when it was still the D-Day Museum (in case you don't know the story, the connection between New Orleans and D-Day is that the Higgins Boat - the transports that brought soldiers to the beaches of Normandy - was invented and largely built in New Orleans during the war) but today's museum is MUCH larger than it was on my first visit.

I'm going to do a short overview of what is available at the museum, but mostly focus on virtual resources you can use in your classroom (rather than plans for a field trip to New Orleans!). I also got a new e-mail from the museum a few days ago featuring some of their new educational opportunities, so I will mention some of those as well . . .

An overall view of the museum, though it is a little

deceptive (since you can only see the newest wing from

this angle). Many people believe the canopy at the top

is supposed to represent a WW II bomber, but it is

actually the Bollinger Canopy of Peace

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/visit/museum-campus-guide/bollinger-canopy-peace

Map of the new complex - #1

shows the original museum.

One area that can easily be

overlooked is Building #7,

with the restored PT boat

and STEM Innovation Gallery.

One of my favorite exhibits was an

elaborate set of rooms on the home

front and "arsenal for democracy" -

like in this picture showing the scope

of the war production efforts in the

United States. Would like to work

on an economics lesson for this

time period.

Main Education Resources at the National World War II Museum:

Main website for the museum - https://www.nationalww2museum.org/

Education at the National World War II Museum (the home page for their resources) - https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers

Curriculum Guides and Lesson Plans (direct link to collections of lesson plans and resources) - https://www.ww2classroom.org/introduction

Teacher Institutes (direct link to apply for their summer programs when available) - https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/educator-resources/professional-development/student-teacher-workshops NOTE that this is the link for 2026 (apply by 1/23/26)

K-12 Education at the National World War II Museum (Facebook group for K-12 teachers on World War II education topics/resources) - https://www.facebook.com/groups/wwiiedu

New Features in their Education Quarterly E-mail Update:

Electronic Field Trips (interactive webcasts on compelling WWII topics) - https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/distance-learning/k-12-distance-learning/electronic-field-trips

Two NEW Curriculum Guides (direct link to collections of lesson plans and resources) - "Fighting for the Right to Fight", https://www.ww2classroom.org/?q=search&subjects=7 AND "Holocaust", https://www.ww2classroom.org/?q=search&subjects=8

Digital Collections from the 250,000 artifacts in the vault at the National World War II Museum (NOTE - multiple pages of collections, so don't just look at the first page!) - https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/from-collection