Smithsonian Institution Courses

The Rise of Superheroes and Their Impact On Pop Culture

14 reviews

EXCLUSIVE! When you complete a verified certificate in this course, you will receive digital artwork from a current comic book artist.

• edX
• 6 weeks, 1-2 hours a week
• On-Demand
• Free Online Course (Audit)

Smithsonian’s Objects That Define America

2 reviews

Explore the history of America through the view of key historic objects, inventions, and exhibits in the Smithsonian collections.

• edX
• 5 weeks, 1-2 hours a week
• On-Demand
• Free Online Course (Audit)

Power and Responsibility: Doing Philosophy with Superheroes

1 review

Pow! Bang! Kaboom! Power and Responsibility: Doing Philosophy with Superheroes, a SmithsonianX and Harvard Division of Continuing Education course, blends superheroes narratives with the core areas of philosophy.

• edX
• 5 weeks, 1-5 hours a week
• On-Demand
• Free Online Course (Audit)

Our Global Ocean – An Introduction Course

Our ocean is vast, mysterious, and key to all life on our planet. This short course will introduce you to the basics of our ocean, marine life, and the connection between humans and our ocean.

• edX
• 5 weeks, 1-2 hours a week
• On-Demand
• Free Online Course (Audit)

#EarthOptimism

Learn to identify and share conservation success stories on Twitter, joining a global community to spread #EarthOptimism and change the conversation around conservation.

• edX
• 1 week, 1-2 hours a week
• On-Demand
• Free Online Course (Audit)

Design in the Classroom with Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Learn how to teach design thinking in the K-12 classroom using Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s innovative classroom activity.

• edX
• 5 weeks, 1-2 hours a week
• On-Demand
• Free Online Course (Audit)

Fundamentals of Artisan Business Development

The course includes fundamental knowledge and skills an artisan needs to convert its craftsmanship from an amateur to business level. This course was delivered in the framework of the My Armenia Program of Smithsonian Institution between 2016-2020.

• edX
• 16 weeks, 1-2 hours a week
• On-Demand
• Free Online Course (Audit)

Science: A Work in Progress

Science: A Work in Progress - shows how science isn’t produced through one linear method, but through an interconnected set of practices, and examines ways that teachers can make learning science in the classroom more authentic.

• edX
• 1 week, 4-5 hours a week
• On-Demand
• Free Online Course (Audit)

རིག་གནས་བསྡུ་འཇུག་དང་ཉར་ཚགས་བྱེད་པའི་ཐབས་ལམ་མདོར་བསྡུས། | Methods and Techniques for Documenting and Preserving Tibetan Culture

བོད་ཀྱི་རིག་གནས་ཉར་ཚགས་དང་ཞིབ་འཇུག་བྱེད་སྟངས་སྐོར་གྱི་ལག་ལེན་ལམ་སྟོན། ཡུལ་དངོས་ཞིབ་འཇུག་དང་བཅར་འདྲི་བྱེད་སྟངས། རྒྱུ་ཆ་ཉར་ཚགས་དང་དཀར་ཆག་འགོད་སྟངས་སོགས་ཀྱི་ཐབས་ལམ་སྟོན་པ།

• edX
• 11 weeks, 1-2 hours a week
• On-Demand
• Free Online Course (Audit)

The Smithsonian Summer Sessions: Interrogating the Stories We Tell

Explore museum objects to uncover hidden stories and make modern connections. Learn teaching strategies using Smithsonian's digital resources to engage students in deeper thinking across disciplines.

• edX
• 14 weeks, 1-2 hours a week
• On-Demand
• Free Online Course (Audit)

Conceptual Change: How New Ideas Take Root

Conceptual Change: How New Ideas Take Root — explores the ways students learn and develop new conceptual understandings, and shows how student misconceptions can be uncovered and addressed as a part of effective learning.

• edX
• 1 week, 4-5 hours a week
• On-Demand
• Free Online Course (Audit)

Fired Up About Energy

Fired Up About Energy – explores common student misconceptions related to the study of energy and suggests methods for effectively representing and discussing the topic in the classroom.

• edX
• 1 week, 4-5 hours a week
• On-Demand
• Free Online Course (Audit)

Teaching Critical Thinking through Art with the National Gallery of Art

30 ratings at edX

Learn how to integrate works of art using Artful Thinking routines, effective strategies from Project Zero at Harvard University, in this interactive online course for teachers of all levels and subjects.

• edX
• 16 weeks, 3-4 hours a week
• On-Demand
• Free Online Course (Audit)

Managing Museums in the 21st Century, a My Armenia Program series

29 ratings at edX

Explore modern museum management, covering exhibitions, programs, outreach, and fundraising. Gain insights from Smithsonian professionals to enhance visitor engagement and operational strategies.

• edX
• 2 weeks, 1-2 hours a week
• On-Demand
• Free Online Course (Audit)

Foundations for Transforming Teaching and Learning about Native Americans

28 ratings at edX

Explore transformative teaching about Native Americans, addressing problematic narratives and incorporating more complete perspectives in education using Smithsonian's NK360° initiative.

• edX
• 4 weeks, 1-2 hours a week
• On-Demand
• Free Online Course (Audit)