Nothing brings life to a classroom like an outside resource or field trip. Planning a field trip or reaching out to the community for speakers who can come into the classroom and share with students is something that all teachers should try to incorporate into their lessons whenever possible. One of our favorite activities when reading Phineas Gage has always been a field trip to The Cushing Center at Yale’s Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library (yale.edu/cushingcenter) where a collection of over 400 brains donated by patients of the famed brain surgeon Harvey Cushing are housed with thousands of articles, specimens and memorabilia related to brain science and brain tumors. This is a fabulous field trip that students engage in yearly as they explore the area on a scavenger hunt that screams Phineas Gage and brain science. Although you may not have this exact facility in your district, search local universities and libraries for resources such as the Cushing Center or visit the center online with your class.
Another exceptional resource available to us in New Haven is the Yale Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Along with thousands or rare and priceless books and manuscripts, the library also holds thousands of rare maps and atlases. And while the library is normally open only to Yale students and faculty, the online site does make much of the material available for public browsing. (https://beinecke.library.yale.edu/)
