Teachers are always looking for new ways to engage their students whether it’s creating a game to help explain a difficult concept, utilizing new technology or providing an unexpected glimpse into another world. Alex Hidalgo, assistant professor of history at TCU, delivers—literally—a personal look at history and provides an interesting teaching experience for his students.

Last week, Hidalgo and 19 students in his History of Museums and Collecting class took dozens of museum objects and personal collectibles to sixth graders at McLean Middle School in Fort Worth. There, the group interacted with approximately 100 students and discussed the historical significance of each item, including a 16th-century manuscript, 18th-century books bound in vellum, and diaries from World War I and World War II.

“The idea for the Traveling Museum came from my wife who encouraged me to take some of my collectibles to my daughter’s school last year,” said Hidalgo. “My visit was so well received, I immediately incorporated the idea into my class.”

Hidalgo divided his students into four groups that each developed a lesson plan for one of the sixth-grade classes. They designed exhibits, created presentations and organized hands-on activities for the kids, including a scavenger hunt and building a Chinese four-hole manuscript.

“The road trip exposed a young audience to history, historical objects and preservation, and allowed my students to express their understanding of and appreciation for history to kids who could one day follow in their footsteps.”

Chrissi Gallegos, one of the sixth-grade teachers at McLean, expressed her gratitude to Hidalgo and TCU. “The kids are genuinely interested in what they saw and the activities planned for them. They asked engaging questions about the origin of the diaries, and enthusiastically requested that TCU does this again.”

Hidalgo specializes in the history of colonial Latin America with an interest in Mesoamerican ethnology, visual studies and the Iberian Atlantic. His research has won support from the Ford Foundation, the Fulbright Commission, the Library of Congress and the American Historical Association.