One Smithsonian

Addressing complicated issues and global problems such as zoonotic diseases, climate change, and the rapid loss of natural resources resulting from human activities and population pressures requires work that spans disciplines and organizational boundaries. The Smithsonian’s potential to tackle complex challenges, as well as to innovate in design, technology, and other pursuits, is greatest when our museums, galleries, Zoo, research centers, education centers, and mission-support offices work together as One Smithsonian.

This section of the Dashboard highlights forward-thinking, interdisciplinary, and cross-Smithsonian activities that tackle pressing issues and chart new paths that the Smithsonian is particularly well suited to address due to its unique combination of science, history, art, and culture experts and global partnerships. Learn more at Smithsonian Global, Smithsonian Insider, and Smithsonian magazine. 

A screenshot from the Smithsonian Learning Lab homepage depicting the “Solar Wall” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Learning Lab

Smithsonian Learning Lab, launched in 2016, is a free, interactive, web-accessible platform from the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology. It allows educators, students, and learners of all ages to create and share their own virtual learning collections, drawing on digital resources from across the Smithsonian’s museums, research centers, libraries, archives, and National Zoo. Users can search and access more than six million images, videos, audio files, texts, 3D objects, and other resources for free educational use, as well as over 10,000 user-created learning collections.  

Jess Shue (left), a ForestGEO PI at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Edgewater, Maryland

ForestGEO

ForestGEO is a global scientific research network for long-term study of the world's forests. It includes 76 forest research plots in 29 countries, managed by over 85 partner organizations. ForestGEO grew out of a plot established in 1981 by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) on Barro Colorado Island, Panama, where Smithsonian ecologists pioneered tree-census techniques later adopted by scientists around the world. Today, all major Smithsonian scientific museums and research centers are active members of ForestGEO, including the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, National Zoological Park’s Conservation and Research Center, National Air and Space Museum, National Museum of Natural History, and Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. 

Smithsonian Summer Camp logo.

Smithsonian Summer Camps

In Summer 2024, the Smithsonian Associates, the Institution’s public education arm, will offer over 90 week-long Smithsonian Summer Camps in the Ripley Center on the National Mall. These Camps will feature age-appropriate educational activities for kids from kindergarten through ninth grade, covering a wide range of subjects in art, history, music, technology, and science, with content crafted in collaboration with Smithsonian museums and research centers, the National Zoo, and external partners such as the U.S. Botanic Garden. For nearly 60 years, Smithsonian Associates has produced vibrant programming inspired by the Smithsonian’s research, collections, and exhibitions that sparks creativity and excites learning in people of all ages.

ODT Smithsonian Organization and Audience Research/OCIO