Students can trace development over time by examining historical objects and comparing and contrasting them with their contemporary equivalents. If objects are art or craft products, students can utilise them as model and stimulus for their own activities. Recycled materials speak of past uses and present utilisation. As well as the visual arts, objects can be interpreted for drama and music improvisations. Objects provide resources for play-making and stimulate the imagination to utilise them in new environments and in new ways.
Objects can stimulate experimentation with ways of writing for a variety of audiences.
Writing outcomes may include report writing, instructional writing, drafted topics for further research, science fiction, poetry, story telling and oral reports. They may be the base for projects that involve hypotheses, investigation, research and presentation. Objects can be measured, weighed, touched, smelled and examined. They may be pictorially represented in advertising, photographs and illustrations. Students may conjecture on who made them, by what process and from which materials.