Immersive Learning Off-Campus

Expand your interests through D.C’s underrated museums

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John Farragut

The International Spy Museum’s new location in L’Enfant Plaza.

One of the greatest things about living in the DC metro area is the ease of access to the iconic museums nearby, yet the majority of the hype goes to the well-known museums. While the well-known museums are well loved for a reason, these underrated museums cover a wide variety of topics and are a great way to discover new interests outside of school curriculums.

 

Learn more about languages with an immersive experience at Planet Word! This museum is the only museum in the country that is dedicated to words and languages. Visitors can choose their own adventure through the museum in an environment full of bold and imaginative interactive puzzles and games designed to inspire a love of language and literacy worldwide. Visitors are engaged in physical, social, and cognitive activities as a part of their experience and understanding of language, and Planet Word encourages inclusivity by showing all types of linguistic diversity, featuring foods from cultures that it displays in its exhibits, and educating visitors about the words they use every day.

 

The International Spy Museum features a history of everything displayed in Hollywood but with the real life techniques spies have used in the past to fly under the radar. From analyzing and breaking codes, lockpicking techniques, and an experience to maintain a covert identity, the International Spy Museum provides a real experience for the general public to experience the life of a spy while staying safely on the outside of the spy world. While the skills that are taught and learned here are generally not used in everyday life, the intelligence and analysis methods can be applied outside of covert situations. Critical understanding can be applied in everyday life, and while not every one if its visitors may turn out to be a spy in their lives, the Spy Museum is an educational yet thrilling experience.

 

Last but certainly not least, the National Museum of African American History and Culture is a recent addition to the iconic Smithsonian museums in the nation’s capital. The museum features many different exhibitions all surrounding a realistic approach to the glossed over in American history courses. A combination of history, visual art, and community to celebrate African American culture all in one place. The exhibits also include music artifacts and cultural icons such as food and traditions. Highlighting prominent activists who shaped history and the world we live in as we know it is important and a topic that many people have heard of but not have been properly exposed to. Visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture to discover these amazing windows into history.