The purpose of this study was to discover if teaching history with hands-on museum objects would enhance student learning at the secondary level. The potential of increasing student memory of a lesson by engaging the tactile senses and building on the authenticity of museum artifacts and specimens inspired this study. Providing schools with museum objects that would otherwise sit in storage was seen as one way that museums could collaborate with schools, if research supported the benefit to the students.

Four American history teachers from two high schools in Mesa, Arizona, participated in this study. With their assistance, a lesson on mining and mining communities was developed that met existing curriculum guidelines. Two museums lent 46 historic artifacts and mineral specimens to be handled by the students.

Twenty intact classes were assigned as either control groups or treatment groups. All students were given the lesson accompanied by images of the objects and historic photographs, but only the students in the treatment groups had the opportunity to also handle the actual museum objects. A multiple-choice pre-test was administered two weeks before the lesson, and a post-test given the following day. Pre-test and post-test scores for 476 students were analyzed using a nested hierarchical design and analysis of variance. Initial results showed no significant difference in test scores for the students who handled the objects and the students who did not.

Two months later, the students in all the classes were asked to list the objects and/or images they remembered and any related information. The answers were coded and quantified for analysis. The results revealed that the students who handled the museum objects during the lesson were able to list significantly more items and information than the students who had viewed images only. Further development of this type of museum-school collaboration was recommended.