In this program, students will be shown mammoth bones, trace fossils, and other fossils from the Mammoth Site that help us understand what happened here in the past. Students will get a look at rock layers in the Black Hills of South Dakota and learn about limestone formations in the Paleozoic seas, the Western Interior Seaway, and up to the Cenozoic period. Students will understand how certain bones can indicate age and gender of the mammoths, how fossils indicate it was a spring, and how fossil pollen gives us an idea of what plants were in the area.

Imagine pulling a stone tool out of the dirt. An object no one has seen for almost 13,000 years! Archaeologists seek to uncover the ancient human past through the objects people leave behind. Archaeology can open your mind to new questions and spark creativity and critical thinking. Learn how archaeologists study the past through objects, start asking important questions, and reconstruct human lives. “Stones, Bows, and Bones; Elementary Archaeology” invites students to start learning about the world of archaeology.

Students participate in an activity that illustrates all the ingredients needed to cook up any habitat: air, water, food and shelter. (Presentation will last approximately 30 minutes.)

This program is geared specifically for students to learn about different life cycles.  The presentation will show how they compare and contrast with each other.

The American Revolution featured many incredible and impressionable moments for the young minds who would come to shape the new country following independence–but few were as impactful as the brutal winter of Valley Forge in 1777-1778. This program will explore the importance of Valley Forge in the Revolution and on the individuals who experienced it, like John Marshall, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and the Marquis de Lafayette. Moreover, students will learn how Valley Forge, ultimately, impacted future Chief Justice John Marshall, American politics, and the United States Judiciary.

See what’s visible in the night sky, visit other planets, explore the distant reaches of the cosmos, and catch up on the latest space news in this live, interactive planetarium experience.

While Elby is visiting his grandma Dottie during a terrible storm and resulting power outage, her memory files become corrupted. Together, we need to find them and bring them back to life with color and movement. CodeJoy participants will learn the basics of coding tri-LEDs and motors. A computer or Chromebook is required for you to interact with our in-studio robots.

Did you know? Some of the most famous poems in the world were “one-hit wonders”, including “Casey at the Bat”, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” “Over the River and Through the Woods”, and “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (AKA, Twas the Night Before Christmas”). In this fun program, Kenn will introduce you to the poets who are known for just a single poem, share their one-hit wonders, and explain what else they did.

The study of Pocahontas is an excellent exercise testing the strength of primary versus secondary sources. Factually we know very little about Pocahontas. These facts are often interwoven with myth and legend surrounding her life. Depictions of Pocahontas throughout time can reveal as much about the time they were created as they do about the Indian "princess".

Allow your students to be introduced to the exciting world of problem solving, creative thinking, and mathematical reasoning through the excitement of stories. Steve will enchant the students with his wonderful stories while sneaking in some math activities. He will keep your students engaged and laughing from start to finish.

Join popular children’s book author Sue Fliess for a Thanksgiving field trip! Sue will talk about her writing process, the history of Thanksgiving and why we celebrate this holiday, and some turkey facts. She’ll read her book HOW TO HIDE A TURKEY and answer questions.

What’s in a name? Join us for a crash course on Linnean classification. For each of the animals your students meet, we’ll break down every part of the animals’ scientific name and discover which groups it belongs in. We’ll also learn how these animals are related to each other and discuss how classifications can change as science advances.

Students will “read” works of art from the NCMA’s permanent collection by Indigenous North American artists and explore how each artist tells a story of Native American past, present, and future. Students will discover how each artist uses their media and scale to elevate and point to the universality of these stories.

The Aquarium is home to not only fish and aquatic life but also reptiles and birds! Soar into this lesson about how our birds of prey came to live at the aquarium and why they are important abassadors to their wild counterparts!

Immerse your students in paintings by Impressionist artist Claude Monet. Students learn to identify elements of Impressionism, such as the depiction of everyday life and the study of changing light and weather. Through a guided activity, students will use their senses to imagine a visit to Monet’s water lily garden.

Go nose-to-beak with more than 80 Antarctic penguins in one of our most popular programs! Become a penguin expert and learn about penguins all over the world, including the three types of cold-weather penguins housed inside the Scott Aquarium.

What's going on with these plants that eat bugs? We will virtually introduce you to sundews, pitcher plants, and Venus flytraps and notice common traits, as we figure out how and why carnivorous plants trap and consume insects and other animals.

Let’s Play! Experience how Early American children played, discover how early toys were made, and learn how “free time” has changed and stayed the same.

Discover chemistry at its coolest as we make fire and foam. Explore four types of chemical reactions to learn about acids and bases, and exothermic and endothermic reactions.

The James Webb Space Telescope’s unique infrared capabilities lets astronomers study stellar evolution like never before. JWST can peer deep into the dusty clouds where stars are being born, spot distant stars that are fusing hydrogen into helium, and even study the remnants of explosive stellar deaths. In this lesson, I’ll use the latest JWST imagery to guide students through each step of a star’s life. We’ll explore how gravity collapses material to make stars, discuss how low and high mass stars have different lifespans, and gain a better understanding of how planetary nebula and supernova remnants are created.

Biomimicry is an approach to innovation that seeks sustainable solutions to human challenges by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies. Through experimentation with models, a live animal encounter, and exploration of how animal and plant adaptations have inspired human innovation, students will understand and be inspired to seek solutions to modern sustainability problems.

The world’s oceans have long served as a battlefield for nations and powers at war, and the East Coast of the American colonies also hosted sea battles with great significance in the Revolutionary War. Amongst its 400 years of history, Cape Henry–home to Cape Henry Lighthouse in 1792–witnessed the Battle of the Virginia Cape in 1781. What impact did maritime warfare have on the trajectory and outcome of the American Revolution? Join Preservation Virginia’s Cape Henry Lighthouse in an exploration of key sea battles in the fight for independence.

Students build a food Web/pyramid that explores the role of producers, consumers, and decomposers to illustrate the transfer of energy at various trophic levels.

Ignite your students' lifelong passion for art with this exciting online class! Through specially crafted images that capture the essence of various artistic styles, your students will explore the world of art and the legendary artists who defined these movements. Each smile in the images represents a unique art style, making the journey through art history fun, engaging, and memorable. Perfect for blending creativity with cultural enrichment, your students will gain a newfound appreciation for art while enjoying a truly joyful learning experience!

Something isn’t quite right on the reef. Work as a class and talk to local animals, complete mini challenges, and use body movements to get closer to solving the mystery, all while learning how reducing plastic pollution can turn you into a superhero too!

Writing a story is a lot like baking cookies. Natalie will talk about her new book, Cookie Cutters & Sled Runners, and share the ingredients for concocting a delicious story, including voice, word choice, and sentence structure. Students will participate in a short activity at the end.

Slither, crawl, hop, run, and wiggle! Join us as we learn how animals get from one place to another. Students will be able to observe how different animals move and try out those movements themselves!

What makes an apartment or building a home? Students will consider the similarities and differences between the Rogarshevsky family and families today while considering how families pass traditions and beliefs from generation to generation.

When you think of this time of year, what smells and colours come to mind? Pine, gingerbread, mulled cider, green, and red? These are related to plants that have been used to celebrate our winter holidays for 1000s of years within different cultures. In fact, most of the plants that we use today for holidays have long histories and amazing stories from ancient times. These stories come from all around the world, and are part of many religions and beliefs.

Rocks, rock! While rocks aren’t living things (or even squishy, for that matter!), they still go through cycles – changing and morphing from one type to another over time. Learn about the three basic rock types with paleontologist Ashley Hall, and how sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks form and change through Earth’s dynamic forces.

It’s all about the seasons & observable changes! How does Earth’s tilt affect the seasons? Why is the Earth tilted anyway? How do daily changes affect the environment? Why is daylight a different length in summer vs. winter? How do clouds form and how do we measure the weather? Why do some clouds spin? All this and more is covered in this hands-on school science incursion where students can explore these topics in detail.

Laura will share some of the research that went into this book as well as the three main techniques animals use to survive cold weather. She'll invite students to think about their own adaptations for cold weather, too!

Students explore habitats around the world. From dry deserts to the rainforest canopy, we will discover some interesting things about these places and investigate how animals survive in their specific habitat.

What better way to spend a cold and snowy winter’s day than writing a poem about the season? From snowmen to sledding, from hot chocolate to holidays, hear some famous and fun winter poems and learn to write them too.

Our friends in the arctic can seem otherworldly: how do they survive when it's so different than what we are used to? Explore the adaptations of different arctic animals and how these adaptations ensure their survival even in the coldest winters.

Explore all the dynamic ways our Earth changes from Volcanoes and earthquakes to hurricanes and climate change. The program duration is 30 to 40 minutes.

Elby is desperate to win a kazoo from the prize wall at the mini golf course, but this game is rigged. We will need to learn how to reprogram the old, unfair code of the obstacles to make the games playable. CodeJoy participants will learn the basics of coding position and rotation motors. A computer or Chromebook is required for you to interact with our in-studio robots.

Visit the MFA’s galleries and journey back 4,500 years to the Giza plateau in ancient Egypt. Join a curator of ancient Egyptian art and a museum educator to see what Pyramid Age sculptures reveal about Egypt’s divine rulers, high-ranking officials, and the craftspeople who created artworks. Aligns with Massachusetts standards for History and Social Science/Investigating History.

When is a rock an Earth rock and when is it a space rock? What makes them alike and what makes them different? We’ll explore these questions and whole lot more as we investigate actual meteorites, “create” asteroids, and learn about the materials of Earth and their origins. This program is held in our museum rock gallery and utilizes a variety of Earth rocks and meteorite specimens loaned to us by the UNL Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Plus, your students will know how to say widmenstatten by the end of the program!

Practice sampling populations of local butterflies just like our scientists do! Students will unpack the importance of biodiversity in butterfly habitats, the work of Nature Museum scientists, and the ways in which people impact local butterfly populations.

What does it take to live in some of the coldest habitats in the world? Lets take an icy adventrue to explore, and draw, who lives in the Arctic and Antarctic and what adaptations these animals use to survive.

Mammals have different ways to survive the winter. Some save up food from the summer and have warm fuzzy coats to keep warm. Others migrate or hibernate. Join us as we look closely at mammal specimens at the Royal BC Museum. Let’s investigate what they do to stay safe and warm during the coldest time of the year. At the conclusion of the program, we will share a cozy winter story.

Join us for a virtual Planetarium show and discover the amazing sights you can see in the sky! Experience the Sun's effects on our planet, from day and night to the seasons. Find constellations and planets, and visit other planets to learn about how special our home planet Earth is.

Our two polar circles house much of the world's ice. Let's investigate the climate that defines our polar circles, with a focus on historical ice levels and ice level change.

Have you ever wanted to be a marine biologist? Explore whales in the West Coast of Canada and step into the shoes of an Ocean Wise whale researcher. Explore how to identify common whale species, what makes them different from one another, and how we can learn more from them like a scientist!

When do people give gifts? Why do people give gifts? How do you feel when you give or receive a gift? What do gifts look like in cultures across Asia? Students will explore gifts exchanged for holidays, religious customs, and other rituals with example objects from countries such as China and India.

Learn how scientists test foods and why our healthy choices are important for our diet. How do scientists test for different nutrients in food? How do scientists extract DNA from fruit? How is food preserved and why don’t we notice some preservatives when we eat it?

Using specimens from bird and mammal collections, students analyze the similarities and differences in anatomy, form and function between these animal groups and how they are affected by environmental change. Students then develop hypotheses to account for observed patterns and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of specific adaptations.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but how do artists tell stories without using any words? We’ll take a deep dive into a few favorites from the Gibbes Museum of Art permanent collection to discover how these stories are told.

How does your brain work? Watch an educator dissect a sheep brain while learning its different parts and functions. We’ll cover the brain and its role in the nervous system.

What would a bug look like if it were perfectly adapted to camouflage in your backyard? In this fun and creative program, students will practice their observation skills on bugs from around the world that are experts in the art of camouflage and then discuss how these traits help them to survive. The adventure wraps up with a chance to design a brand new species of insect, using leaves and other natural elements from around your school or yard.

Go on a hiking adventure through the mountain forest all the way to the ocean of South Carolina, and meet the animals that call them home! Presented by the South Carolina Aquarium.

The proposed American government is thought to be one of the most radical political experiments in history. What did it take to create the United States Constitution and to ordain it as the law of the land beginning in 1789? What was important to various Americans like John Marshall in the formation of this new government? Whose voices counted in the heated debate over the Constitution, and who was left out? This virtual program explores the proposition of the Constitution and the process--and debate–of ratifying it into law.

Allow your students to be introduced to the exciting world of problem solving, creative thinking, and mathematical reasoning through the excitement of stories. Steve will enchant the students with his wonderful stories while sneaking in some math activities. He will keep your students engaged and laughing from start to finish.

Ever wonder what animals do in the winter? Join a ranger to discover the hidden life on animals in the winter in Rocky Mountain National Park. Program duration is 30 to 40 minutes.

Explore the mammals that evolved after the extinction of the dinosaurs, and find out how these ancient beasts adapted as North America's climate changed from tropical to an ice age. Using real fossils from our Collection, you will see some familiar favourites such as the mammoth and sabre-toothed cat, but also meet some unique mega-mammals like the giant ground sloth and Glyptodont. The program concludes with a Q&A session with a Museum expert. We'll find out not all giants were dinosaurs!

Holiday poetry is a tradition that goes back centuries. Discover some of the most enduring holiday poems, from perennial favorites such as “A Visit from St. Nicholas” and “Over the River and Through the Woods” to modern classics and humorous holiday verse.

Nonfiction science author Ginjer Clarke shares fun facts, myth-busters, and exciting animal adventures with select excerpts from her title "Reindeer: On the Move!" Along the way, she will share information about migrations, adaptations, and habitats using maps and photos to provide additional content.

Make a splash with your class this SEA-son by diving into some undersea mysteries. Where do ocean animals migrate? How do they adapt to freezing temperatures? Why does ice float? Does it snow in the ocean? Then meet Sandy Claws and some festive friends as we shell-ebrate with winter craftivities. It's an oceanic adventure that's sure to bring waves of joy and curiosity to your classroom!

Nonfiction science author Ginjer Clarke shares fun facts, myth-busters, and exciting animal adventures with select excerpts from her title "Reindeer: On the Move!" Along the way, she will share information about migrations, adaptations, and habitats using maps and photos to provide additional content.

Space agencies around the world are pointing telescopes towards the sky in search of planets outside the solar system that are similar to Earth. So far, astronomers have discovered over 5500 exoplanets in total, with 40 or more having the possibility of supporting life. Join us as we learn about different exoplanet telescope missions, and how we might determine if a planet is suitable for life!

Students will have a chance to see toys from long ago and today, then make a game of their own. The Toy Museum of NY will provide a downloadable project for each student to work on.

Chinese New Year is celebrated by over 1 billion people worldwide. In this trip we take students to local shops and street decorations to see how Taiwanese citizens are celebrating this great holiday. We learn the history of the holiday, the meaning of current zodiac sign, and more. The trip continues with some exploration of the night markets, local temples and other exciting locations.

Students will have a chance to see toys from long ago and today, then make a game of their own. The Toy Museum of NY will provide a downloadable project for each student to work on.

Join a curator of ancient Nubian art and a museum educator to discover what Nubian artworks reveal about the achievements of this Nile Valley civilization. Students will see artworks that disprove stereotypes about ancient Nubians and demonstrate Nubia’s relationship to Egypt.