Educational Materials Center
We are the professional, cultural artifacts and fine arts library with 30,000 items available for use by educators.
In addition to books, the collection includes artifacts, exhibits, sculptures, art prints, library panels, life-size costumed figures, textiles and videos.
- Call – 520-225-4783
- Email – Education Materials Center
- Visit – Thomas L. Lee Instructional Resource Center, 2025 E Winsett St, Tucson, AZ 85719 (Map)
The TUSD Resource, Textbook and Library Online Catalog page has specific catalogs of all our materials and media at our center.
Van Gogh once wrote to his brother...
“...the sight of the stars always makes me dream in as simple a way as the black spots on the map, representing towns and villages, make me dream.” “Just as we take the train to go to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to go to a star.”
RK 4001 Row 1 Shelf 1
This resource kit comes with...
- 30 sets of plastic tangram Puzzles
- 30 sets of line drawn animal handouts
- 30 sets with no lines, handout
- 1 book: "The Fun with Tangrams Kit"
LP 81 Panel 1
This library panel showcases...
...the origin of the Man in the Maze, or I’itoi, in Tohono O’odham culture. The Maze is a labyrinth that represents the pattern of life; with obstacles in the way, and happiness for those who find their way through.
FAP Escher 6
This fine art print depicts...
...a little man emerging from a gate. He does not seem aware that he will dissolve into the geometric pattern below. Escher said the art was part of a set of prints that are all “expressions of my search for the new direction in which I feel driven”.
RK 4001 Row 1 Shelf 21
This resource kit comes with...
• brushes
• brush containers
• water containers
• paper
• ink
• folder with lesson plans
• Japanese calligraphy book
E 522 Row 6 Shelf 7
This exhibit showcases...
...a reproduction of a Grecian Urn that may
be seen in large sizes in the Garden of
Versailles.
Many pieces like this were covered in
“patina”, a thin green or brown layer that
forms on metals like copper and bronze.
RK 4001 Row 1 Shelf 6
This resource kit comes with...
- 2 large pieces of printed fabric
- teddy bear
- violin
- saxophone
- basket with fake ivy
- plastic banana
- conch shell
- bundle of grapes
- small clay pot
This exhibit shows...
...a pensive cat “loafing” in place. Although conceived in a more playful mood than most of her work, this cat is somewhat characteristic, showing Poupelet’s ability to capture feeling in bronze.
This fine art print depicts...
...a whole word spinning out of control toward a central vortex of luminous light. This showcases Dali’s renowned technical skill in surrealist art.
This exhibit shows...
...a reproduction of a sculpture from Dynasty XIX (1270 BCE), Egypt. In ancient Egypt, Hathor was depicted as either mother or consort to Horus and Ra. She is then believed to be the symbolic mother of the pharaohs, monarchs of Egypt.
This book details...
...a museum-style exhibition of world culture. The book begins with a general introduction to archaeology and provides a full-spread timeline for reference. Learn about the people of the ancient world and discover the amazing objects they left behind
This exhibit shows...
...a trilobite fossil, in two pieces, from the Cambrian Era. Trilobites had minerals in their exoskeleton that easily fossilize. Despite being so old, over 20,000 species have been discovered.
This exhibit shows...
...a traditional African Zulu drum, hand carved out of wood and topped with either cowhide or goat skin. The Zulu are the largest ethnic group in South Africa, with more than 13 million people mainly living in the province KwaZulu-Natal.
This exhibit shows...
...a mask used to celebrate the festival Setsubun (lit. ‘seasonal division’ in Japanese). A popular way to celebrate is to throw roasted soybeans to ward off evil spirits and invite good luck. Some wear masks to appear as oni (demons), acting as evil spirits warded away by the bean-throwing.
This exhibit shows...
...an unassuming looking slab with inscriptions in two Ancient Egyptian languages (hieroglyphic and Demotic) and Ancient Greek. Ancient Greek rulers of Egypt issued copies of a celebration of Ptolemy V Epiphanes’s coronation as king of Egypt in 196 BCE. Since the text is the same in all three languages, the Rosetta Stone was used to decipher hieroglyphics using knowledge of Ancient Greek!
This exhibit shows...
...a replica of a sculpture of the head of a woman. The original is in the Lourve, in Paris. It is unknown who the woman depicted in this is. They could have been a specific person known by the artist, or perhaps a goddess presented in the humanized style of the time.
This fine art print depicts...
...the Campbell soup of the title flavor. Warhol was known for his fascination with consumer culture. He once said “I used to drink it. I used to have the same lunch every day, for 20 years... the same thing over and over again.”