UNCW faculty, K-12 educators, and community groups who are interested in having their students or members explore the Center's resources are encouraged to reach out to us to set up an instruction session. The Center's instruction program provides a hands-on learning experience for classes and groups who may be embarking on an archival research project for the first time or looking to explore the Center's unique historical resources on a particular topic. During an instruction session, an archivist will introduce students to several foundational primary source literacy concepts, such as understanding and interpreting primary sources, using sources to generate research questions, navigating finding aids and other search tools, and critically interrogating sources to determine biases, silences, and power relationships.
If you are interested in arranging one or more instruction sessions for your group, please contact the Center's public services archivist, Samantha Crisp, to discuss your course or project.

What are faculty saying about the Center's instruction program?
"This is the third time I've brought my classes to the archives and students raved about the session Sam taught each time. It's a great way for them to use the archives to put our course content into a historical, local perspective."
"I think most of the students were really excited to explore material in this way. It was new to all of them. It's an important experience!"
"It was very hands-on, and giving the students room to 'explore', rather than restricting them to an in-class exercise, resulted in a more productive learning experience."
What are students saying about the Center's instruction program?
"I'm excited to learn more about economic losses of wetlands and to get more first hand information about it."
"I really enjoyed looking at these old documents today. I thought it was really interesting and a great way to understand how to break down sources and I LOVED IT!"
"My favorite part of today's class was getting to look through and analyze original documents. I don't think I've ever done this to this level before. Super cool!"
"Most interesting class period so far!"