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Tours and Science Labs
Tours
Special Exhibit Tours
Science Labs
General Museum Tours
Hunt like a wolf and touch a live turtle, dance like a crane and meet the museum's resident snakes on these high-energy, interactive tours of the museum's Touch and See Room and wildlife diorama halls. Tours are led by enthusiastic University of Minnesota students studying education and the natural sciences.
Adventure Tour
An extended museum visit. Bell Museum interpreters lead students through a variety of activities and discussions in the diorama halls and the Touch and See Room. Only the Adventure Tour includes a visit to the museum's special exhibition hall.
Length: 2 hours
Cost: $75 per group of 12
Grade: All grades
Size: Minimum 8, maximum 72 students
Discovery Tour
Explore the museum's habitat dioramas and experience the wide-open prairie, the shadowy coniferous forest, and the shores of Lake Superior. Museum interpreters bring these displays to life with lively discussion and fun, age-appropriate activities.
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $50 per group of 12
Grade: All grades
Size: Minimum 8, maximum 72 students
For all tours: One adult per 10 students free; additional adults $5 each
Discovery Plus Tour
This tour combines the Discovery Tour with an additional half hour in our Touch and See Room, featuring an extensive collection of live animals, bones, skins, specimens, rocks, fossils, and trees. Interpretive staff are available to assist student explorations.
Length: 1.5 hour
Cost: $55 per group of 12
Grade: All grades
Size: Minimum 8, maximum 72 students
Unguided Exploration
For groups with a special project, for art classes, or for those who prefer to explore the Bell Museum on their own.
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $3 per student, $5 per chaperone
Grade: All grades
Size: Minimum 8, maximum 40 students
For Larger Groups: Expedition Tour
A one-hour, self-guided exploration of the diorama halls. Assisted by museum's interpretive staff, students work in small groups to search the museum's habitat dioramas for answers to common questions relevant to classroom studies of natural history.
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $4 per student, $5 per chaperone
Grade: Grades 3-12
Size: Minimum 72, maximum 150 students
Special Exhibit Tours
Tour the museum's exciting Hungry Planet exhibit and learn what the world eats, where it comes from and how it's grown. Students will check out exotic grocery items, calculate their food "footprint" and learn about the natural history of vegetables and grains. Tours are led by enthusiastic University of Minnesota students studying education and the natural sciences.
Hungry Planet Tour
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $50 per group of 12
Grade: All grades
Size: Minimum 8, maximum 72 students
For all tours: One adult per 10 students free; additional adults $5 each
Hungry Planet Adventure Tour
Length: 2 hours
Cost: $75 per group of 12 students
Grades: Third through college
Size: Maximum 72 students
A tour of Hungry Planet, a visit to the Touch and See Room and a tour of the museum's diorama halls centering on food related topics such as sustainable agriculture and agriculture's environmental impact on natural ecosystems.
Science Labs
The Bell Museum's programs offer in-depth exploration and discovery on specialized topics in science and natural history. Program content emphasizes inquiry skills and is consistent with national science standards. The workshops are designed to be adaptable to different grade levels.
Hungry Planet Science Labs
Hungry Planet Sustainability Lab
This lab addresses such questions as why are different foods grown in different places around the world and what impact thee different food farming practices have on the environment.
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $70
Grades: 6-12
Size: Maximum 40 students
Hungry Planet Evolution and Biology of Food Lab
Learn about the origins of our foods species and how humans have changed the food plants and animals that we eat.
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $70
Grades: K-12
Size: Maximum 40 students
One Hour Science Labs
Adaptation Presentation
This energetic and highly participatory program explores the adaptations that aid animals in their survival. See live turtles and learn how their bodies are designed to fit their habitats.
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $70
Grades: 4-8
Size: Maximum 40 students
Butterfly and Moth Basics
In this highly interactive workshop, students will learn to identify the differences between butterflies and moths, to explore the life cycle of these animals, and reproduce the might trek that some of our great butterflies make every year.
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $70
Grades: K-6
Size: Maximum 40 students
Dead Leave, Decomposers and Detritivores
Explore the role of decomposers. Take a hands-on look at the role of decomposers in our environment. Dig for earthworms, explore the fate of fallen leaves, and the creatures that make their living on the dead.
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $70
Grades: K-9
Size: Maximum 40 students
Evolution of Fish
Explore the role fish have played in evolution using real museum specimens and displays. Discover how lampreys are related to paddlefish, how sturgeon are related to sharks, and how all fish are related to all vertebrates including you and me.
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $70
Grades: 4-8
Size: Maximum 40 students
Gyotaku
Use real fish to create art using the Japanese style of fish printing.
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $70
Grades: 2-8
Size: Maximum 40 students
Honey Bees*
Observe our most familiar and most important social insect at work. Learn about what makes a social insect and super-organism. Extract and bottle honey to take home.
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $70 with an addition $20 lab fee for each 40 student class
Grades: K-12
Size: Maximum 40 students
*April through December only
Introduction to Invertebrates
Insects are the most successful organisms on the planet. They may also be the most misunderstood and maligned. Find out why we couldn't live without them. Meet a variety of insects (and handle some) such as giant hissing cockroaches, 10-inch African millipedes, and honey bees (if in season).
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $70
Grades: K-6
Size: Maximum 40 students
Advanced Insects:
Diversity and the Importance of Classification
How do invertebrates differ from one another? How do we know a bee is a bee and why is it related to an ant? Learn how to identify and classify insects using real Bell Museum insect specimens. Look deeper into the differences among arthropods and begin to think about scientific classification systems using insect orders.
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $70
Grades: 3-8
Size: Maximum 40 students
Minnesota Black Bears
Black bears roar to life as museum interpreters demonstrate winter survival techniques and bear behavior. To learn how bears are equipped to live in the wild, we'll transform a student or teacher into a growling, prowling bear. Students will learn about bear family structures and explore the challenges faced by animals whose full-time job is finding food.
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $70
Grades: K-3
Size: Maximum 40 students
Mustelids
From the Least Weasel to the Giant Otter, learn what these animals have in common and why they are all grouped together in the weasel family. Students will compare the five senses of a human to that of other mammals and participate in a fun-filled scent-based game.
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $70
Grades: K-6
Size: Maximum 40 students
Predators and Prey
Students are challenged to rethink assumptions about predators and prey as they explore the important concept of animal interdependence. A video presentation and active learning exercises challenge students to track the populations of a pack of wolves and a herd of deer.
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $70
Grades: K-6
Size: Maximum 40 students
Prehistoric Minnesota: Mammals of the Ice Age
Meet the warm blooded giants that once roam the Minnesota landscape including giant beavers, saber-toothed cats, and woolly mammoths. Learn about the adaptations these animals had to their cold environment by making yourself into a mammoth, see the skulls from these majestic beasts, and hear the story of how these animals faded into time.
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $70
Grades: K-10
Size: Maximum 40 students
Reptiles and Amphibians
From scaly to slimy meet the reptiles and amphibians of the Bell Museum. What is the difference between a reptile and amphibian? Why do turtles have different shell shapes? Why are salamanders so slimy? Find out the answers to these and more.
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $70
Grades: K-6
Size: Maximum 40 students
Two-Hour Science Labs
Fish Anatomy
Learn external and internal fish anatomy by dissecting along with a university graduate student on our live interactive video monitor. Discover parts of fish you never knew existed and the answers to questions like What is a gas bladder? and Do all fish have hypatopancreases?
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $90
Grades: 2-8
Size: Maximum 40 students
Insect Anatomy
What's inside an insect? How are our insides similar to and different from an insect's? Explore the external and internal anatomy of the Louisiana lubber grasshopper using observation, scientific drawing and dissection methods, with a university graduate student on our live interactive monitor.
Length: 2 hours
Cost: $90
Grades: 2-8
Size: Maximum 40 students
To be added to the Bell Museum's Education Program mailing list, contact registrations@bellmuseum.org.
To register for Bell Museum programs:
E-mail: belladm@umn.edu
Call 612-626-9660 to register by phone
Registration Office open Monday through Friday, 9:00-4:30
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