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Curricula and Resources
MoPA is dedicated to helping teachers incorporate photography into their curriculum. We continually offer new resources for teachers. Our website includes free illustrated curriculum resources for current exhibitions, educational plans, and suggested activities.

Suggested Materials and Activities
Creating a Magazine Activity link
Museum Visit Activity (fill-out form template) link
Photojournalism Activity link

Current Exhibition Curricula and Activities
Picturing the Process: Landscape Through Time and Space Curriculum link
Landscape Through Time and Space Gallery Activities
Activity 1 link
Activity 2 link

Nancy Newhall: A Literacy of Images Curriculum link
Activity 1 link
Activity 2 link

Please visit this page periodically for new materials and activities.

Slides, videos, curriculum resources, and a wide variety of books are available in our newly expanded Dubois Library. Selected materials and curricula are also offered for sale through the MoPA bookstore.

The Visual Classroom: Integrating Photography into the School Curriculum
Designed in 2000, The Visual Classroom: Integrating Photography into the School Curriculum teaches students and teachers about photography. The curriculum is an instructional tool intended to enhance classroom work in subjects such as History/Social Studies, Science, Language Arts/English, and the Visual Arts. The Visual Classroom assists students in developing visual literacy and critical thinking through the medium of photography. The curriculum includes over seventy slides, photographic activities, instructions, and arts-related materials. Currently, this curriculum is only available for teachers who participate in MoPA’s outreach programs.

For more information on outreach programs, call (619) 238-7559 x229 or email outreach@mopa.org.

Beyond Beauty: What is Real Beauty?
Beyond Beauty is a curriculum intended to address issues associated with body image in teenagers. Media-conscious teenagers craft and develop their own thoughts, responses, and stereotypes regarding body image. As teachers we can guide and explore the idea of both personal and cultural images through interactive classroom lessons. Beyond Beauty is standards-aligned and is geared for students in grades 9-12.

$25 per copy, plus tax; additional shipping costs may apply. Purchase your copy online.

Beyond Beauty was generously funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, Weingart Foundation, Thomas Ackerman Foundation, Qualcomm, and the Kenneth and Eileen Norris Foundation.

Humanitas: Images of India by Fredric Roberts
Curriculum Resource
Designed in 2008 to accompany Fredric Roberts’ Humanitas exhibition, this curriculum is intended to teach students and teachers about the life and photography of Fredric Roberts. Photographing primarily in India and the east, Roberts’ depicts ordinary life, from daily events to religious ceremonies, revealing the intimacy and community of place. These images present a fascinating and engaging depiction of domestic and economic life. This twenty-page curriculum contains two lesson plans, vocabulary, and a DVD with fifteen images.

$25 per copy, plus tax; additional shipping costs may apply. Please contact the museum store at 619.238.7559 x209 to purchase.

Education programming for Humanitas: Images of India by Fredric Roberts was generously funded by Dr. and Mrs. Peter Bing.

The CARE Website

MoPA’s collaborative outreach program, CARE (Collaborative Arts Resources for Education), encourages teachers and students to continue and expand the visual art experience in the face of diminished funding for arts education. The CARE Program includes a website that provides educators and students quality-standards-aligned arts-based lesson plans and resources. The CARE program strives to encourage a resurgence of arts education in the classroom. Lesson plans and images from the museum’s collection are available for free download at www.carearts.org.

New additions to the CARE website are bilingual pages devoted to families and kid friendly pages. Parents and their children can view artwork, discover what programs are available, and even create their own work of art together by exploring the activity pages.

Edmund L. and Nancy K. Dubois Library link
One of the few libraries in the country dedicated solely to the subject of photography, the Dubois Library holds more than 20,000 items, including books, journals, and exhibition catalogs. The library supports the information needs of the curatorial and educational programs of the Museum, while also serving as a unique research collection for educators and researchers interested in film and photography. The library's collections may be searched through the online catalog, accessible through the Museum's website. To schedule an appointment, please contact (619) 238-7559 x216 or email library@mopa.org.