Activity
American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History: If Trash Could Talk

For Students 3rd - 8th
What does your trash say about you? Take a close look inside your trash can and think about the clues it offers about your life.
Activity
American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History: Draw a Monarch Butterfly

For Students 3rd - 8th
Learn how to create a scientific illustration of a monarch butterfly in a few easy steps.
Activity
American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History: Create Your Own Time Capsule

For Students 3rd - 8th
By making time capsules, we can decide what message to send to the future about our own lives. If it were discovered years from now, what would the objects say about you and the time you lived in?
Activity
American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History: See the Light

For Students 3rd - 8th
Take a look at light with these three easy experiments
Interactive
American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History: Play With Color and Light

For Students 3rd - 5th
See what happens when you mix different colors of lights.
Activity
American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History: Trip Up Your Brain

For Students 3rd - 8th
Try this trippy experiment to fool your brain.
Activity
American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History: Crazy Camouflage

For Students 3rd - 5th
Create a flounder fish that's hard to spot. In this hands-on activity, students gather evidence to explore how camouflage helps animals survive.
Website
American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History: What Is Water?

For Students 3rd - 6th
This comprehensive article provides information about the physical properties of water, the importance of water as an Earth material, the processes and cycles that water undergoes on Earth, its importance to life on Earth, and why we...
Activity
American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History: Grow Rock Candy

For Students 2nd - 5th
Students can carry out an investigation using sugar and water to determine whether heating or cooling a substance may cause changes that can be observed. This activity reinforces the ideas that the properties of materials can change when...
Activity
American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History: Map Your World

For Students 2nd - 8th
Students can follow these easy steps to develop a model (drawing) of their room and the things in it. Then they can broaden the drawing to include their entire floor, apartment, or house.
Handout
San Diego Natural History Museum

San Diego Natural History Museum: Mineral Matters: Color

For Students 3rd - 8th
Don't be fooled! While color is one way to identify a mineral, it can often be misleading. Quartz is one example of a mineral that can change colors depending on its chemical make-up.
Handout
San Diego Natural History Museum

San Diego Natural History Museum: Mineral Matters: Luster

For Students 3rd - 8th
A brief introduction to identifying a mineral by its luster. Examples of terms used to describe luster, such as metallic, glassy, and dull are listed.
Activity
Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum: Meteorites

For Students 3rd - 8th
Brief article examines what meteorites are, the different types, and where they came from.
Website
American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History: O Logy: Genetics

For Students 3rd - 8th
This site from American Museum of Natural History focuses on Genetics. It defines genetics and provides links to games, stories, videos, and hands-on activities on the topic.
Interactive
American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History: O Logy: Saving Species

For Students 3rd - 8th
Learn why fieldwork is an important component of any scientist's career, especially among those who are actively working to preserve the Earth's biodiversity. Three American Museum of Natural History biologists tell you about their...
Handout
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Banner Tailed Kangaroo Rat

For Students 4th - 8th
The Banner-tailed Kangaroo Rat confines its activities to small areas near the large earthen mounds that contain its complex burrow systems. Usually gentle and timid, this Kangaroo Rat will fight furiously to defend its territory from...
Handout
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: California Deermouse

For Students 4th - 8th
California Deermice are nocturnal, with peak activity periods near dusk and dawn. Adults are fairly sedentary, spending much of their time nesting under fallen logs or debris, in trees, or in the dens made by other rodents. Learn more...
Handout
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Canyon Deermouse

For Students 4th - 8th
Canyon Deermice inhabit arid shrublands and grasslands in the inhospitable "slickrock" deserts of the West. In the canyons where they live, the common denominator is bare rock, and they are remarkably agile at scampering on vertical or...
Lesson Plan
University of Texas at Austin

Texas Memorial Museum: Hall of Geology and Paleontology Educator Guide [Pdf]

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
An educator guide to visiting the Texas Memorial Museum. Guide includes pre-visit activities, activities during your visit, post-visit activities, words to know, and websites for educators and students.
Website
Other

New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science: Coelophysis

For Students 3rd - 8th
The Coelophysis is New Mexico's official state fossil. It lived in the late Triassic Period and has only been found in New Mexico. Popular questions about this dinosaur are answered here. In addition, there are numerous documents about...
Interactive
American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History: Light O Logy Card

For Students 3rd - 8th
Flip over this interactive OLogy card and start learning bite-size pieces of useful information about light.
Article
American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History: O Logy: What's the Big Idea? Paleontology

For Students 3rd - 8th
Snapshot reference on paleontology explains how the fossil record drives this area of science.
Handout
Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Carnegie Museum of Natural History: Tlingit of the Northwest Coast

For Students 3rd - 8th
Explore the culture, beliefs, and people of the Tlingit Indians of the Northwest Coast.
Interactive
American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History: O Logy: What Do You Know? Astronomy

For Students 3rd - 8th
Take this ten-question self-scoring quiz to test your knowledge of astronomy facts: age of the universe, why stars and planets are spheres, where other life might exist in the outer space, the Milky Way, and more.