A three credit undergraduate course, offered through a University of Texas Gifted and Talented Program to qualified high school students, used material objects in a museum to promote visual thinking. Fourteen students were enrolled in the course, which included four interacting units of study: (1) using the operations and strategies of visual thinking; (2) responding to the visual elements in artworks and artifacts; (3) interpreting artifacts in their historical context; and (4) designing small exhibits. A formative evaluation used a written test matched to course goals which was administered prior to, at the midpoint, and at the end of the course. Results indicated that students emphasized fact-seeking in the questions they applied to objects, and that they could respond to visual elements in describing objects but could not apply those same elements to object exhibition. The most demonstrable contribution of the course to student learning was in thematic awareness. The study suggests developmental stages for the ideation and communication of imagery. These stages assume that skill develops from the following: (1) exposure to models of expressed imagery; (2) practice in seeing wholes and parts and opportunities to repattern perceptions; (3) activities in graphic ideation which consciously remove existing labels; and (4) efforts to replace the old labels with new ones that communicate mental impressions through visuals and words. (LMM)