The natural history museums and science centers listed below were chosen because they meet at least one of a number of criteria: a live insect exhibit; educational materials or programs related to biodiversity; on-line information relevant to the project available through their Web site; or access to scientists or naturalists that can answer questions that may arise throughout the project. For smaller local museums and science centers look for your region in the Web site link pages listed below.
General Resources
- Biological Museums on the Web
- Look here for web-links to natural history and science museums in your region.
- Search here for links to and information about museums in your area.
- Museum Web Directory
- Search here for links to and information about museums in your area. You can search by type of museum, name or location.
Northeast
- Montshire Museum of Science
P.O. Box 220
Norwich, VT 05055
Tel: (802) 649-2200
E-mail: montshire@valley.net
- The Montshire Museum of Science includes 100 acres of walking trails, two floors packed with hands-on exhibits pertaining to space, nature and technology. They offer a range of summer programs, teacher workshops, and a "Camp-In" program for family or youth groups. An example of an education program is the Northern Forests: Exploring a Local Ecosystem workshop, where students are led on an outdoor exploration of the ecology of the northern forests.
Support Offered:
- Educational materials
- Classes/workshops for kids
- Enrichment classes/presentations
- Professional development programs/workshops
- Field-based activities/excursions
- Family activities
- Harvard Museum of Natural History
Harvard University
26 Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: (617) 495-3045
E-mail: mcnh@oeb.harvard.edu
- The Museum offers a number of guided tours, education activities and education materials for school groups.
Support Offered:
- Information about biodiversity
- Information about local endangered species
- Educational materials
- Classes/workshops for kids
- Enrichment classes/presentations
- Professional development programs/workshops
- Peabody Museum of Natural History
Yale University
170 Whitney Avenue
New Haven, CT 06520
Tel: (203) 432-5050
- The museum contains both botanical and invertebrate collections. Their Web site has searchable databases in both of these departments.
Support Offered:
- Searchable electronic database of collections (insects & plants)
- American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th Street
New York, NY 10024
Tel: (212) 769-5100
- The Museum has an active program of educational offerings, from school tours to adult lecture series on science, archaeology, culture, and history, to hands-on workshops for the whole family. In addition, the Museum is home to the Western Hemisphere's largest natural-history library and to the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, founded to address the serious threat posed by major worldwide losses of animal species. The Museum's magazine, Natural History, brings the natural sciences, world cultures, and Museum events to 500,000 people every month.
Support Offered:
- Information about biodiversity
- Information about local endangered species
- Educational materials
- Classes/workshops for kids
- Enrichment classes/presentations
- Field-based activities/excursions
- Professional development programs/workshops
- Publishes a newsletter or journal
- Resource library
- Staten Island Children's Museum
Snug Harbor
1000 Richmond Terrace
Staten Island, NY 10301
Tel: (718) 448-6557
- The Staten Island's Children's Museum focuses on the arts, history and sciences in an environment geared to children.
Mid-Atlantic
- Academy of Natural Sciences
1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Tel: (215) 299-1000
E-mail: garth@say.acnatsci.org
- The Academy's education department offers hands-on discovery activities; education handbooks; teacher workshops; teaching resource kits and curriculum materials; and a summer camp for kids.
Support Offered:
- Educational materials
- Classes/workshops for kids
- Resource library
- Enrichment classes/presentations
- Professional development programs/workshops
- Field-based activities/excursions
- Publishes a newsletter or journal
- Information specialists
- On-line science support
- Family activities
- National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Institution
10th & Constitution NW
Washington, DC 20560
Tel: (202) 357-2700
- The Museum contains the O. Orkin Insect Zoo, a special section which exhibits living insects and their relatives. The museum also has a botany department, which maintains a searchable database on their Web site.
Support Offered:
- Live (insect and plant) exhibits
- Searchable electronic database of collections (insects & plants)
Southeast
- Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Florida
Department of Natural Sciences
268 Dickinson Hall, Campus Box 117800
Gainesville, FL 32611-7800
Tel: (352) 392-1721
- The Museum is involved with a number of education endeavors. Curriculum-based tours for K-12 students utilize permanent and temporary exhibits, hands-on specimens and artifacts, and participatory activities. Workshops are offered statewide for teachers in the natural sciences, anthropology, and Florida Studies. These participatory programs are designed to meet state recertification requirements, and emphasize science processes and new discoveries.
Support Offered:
- Information about biodiversity
- Educational materials
- Classes/workshops for kids
- Enrichment classes/presentations
- Professional development programs/workshops
- Publishes a newsletter or journal
- Information about local endangered species
- Museum of Discovery and Science
401 S.W. 2nd Street
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312-1707
Tel: (954) 467-6637
- This science discovery center has numerous hands-on, interactive exhibits, as well as education material for use in both the museum and the classroom.
Support Offered:
- Classes/workshops for kids
- Specimen collections open to the public
- Educational materials
- North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences
102 North Salisbury Street
Raleigh, NC 27603
Tel: (919) 733-7450
E-mail: Karen.Kemp@ncmail.net
- Through exhibits, research, public programs and events, publications, education for students, and training for teachers, the Museum promotes biological diversity and environmental awareness. Public programs include classes, workshops and trips, special events, an Audubon speaker series, and more. They also offer statewide outreach programs such as Grassroots Science in Small-town North Carolina, a series offered in public libraries, community centers, and other sites.
Support Offered:
- Classes/workshops for kids
- Enrichment classes/presentations
- Professional development programs/workshops
- Field-based activities/excursions
- Educational materials
- Specimen collections open to the public
South
- Centennial Museum
University of Texas at El Paso
El Paso, TX 79968
Tel: (915) 747-5565
E-mail: museum@mail.utep.edu
- Around the Museum building, demonstration gardens display a living exhibit to show the beauty and utility of Southwestern water-conserving native plants in landscaping.
Support Offered:
- Live (insect and plant) exhibits
- Houston Museum of Natural Science
One Hermann Circle Drive
Houston, TX 77030
Tel: (713) 639-4650
E-mail: webmaster@hmns.mus.tx.us
- The Museum houses a Butterfly Center (displaying live butterflies), and a Hall of Entomology, where butterflies, moths, beetles and other insects are displayed. The Museum offers numerous education programs and materials, post-visit curriculum materials for classroom use, and a Wildlife on Wheels program that brings live animals into classrooms. Teaching kits, which contain artifacts or specimens and supporting materials such as slides, videos, and lesson plans are also available (e.g., their Endangered Species of Texas kit, which emphasizes native Texas species and the importance of local wildlife conservation). Additionally, the Museum has a hands-on, summer science camp.
Support Offered:
- Educational materials
- Classes/workshops for kids
- Live insect exhibits
- Professional development programs/workshops
- Field-based activities/excursions
- Films/videos
- On-line science support
- Information about local endangered species
- New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
1801 Mountain Road, NW
Albuquerque, NM
- The Museum is involved with a number of education programs through coalitions with research and development organizations. For example, The Electronic Bridge Project is a partnership of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, the University of New Mexico Distance Education Center, UCAN-RSI, Tribal and CountyCoalitions, the Northern New Mexico Network for Rural Education, and SIMSE, and is an effort to enrich math and science education in southwestern rural schools through the use of technology. Target group is secondary school students (7-12) and their math and science teachers.
Support Offered:
- Professional development programs/workshops
- Educational materials
- Classes/workshops for kids
Mid-West
- Field Museum of Natural History
Lakeshore Drive and Roosevelt Road
Chicago, IL 60605
Tel: (312) 922-9410
- Pre- and post-visit education materials are available for classroom use. These are meant to accompany the Museum's exhibits.
Support Offered:
- Enrichment classes/presentations
- Educational materials
- Films/videos
- Kansas University Natural History Museum
Kansas University
Natural History Museum
Lawrence, KS 66045
Tel: (913) 864-4540
E-mail: kanu@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
- The Museum has an extensive education department, which offers museum based workshops as well as a program that sends scientists to schools.
Support Offered:
- Classes/workshops for kids
- Educational materials
- Enrichment classes/presentations
- Professional development programs/workshops
- Field-based activities/excursions
- Access to naturalist or scientist
- Museum of Zoology of the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
1109 Geddes Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079
Tel: (313) 764-0476
- The museum offers a number of workshops for kids, as well as having zoology and natural history exhibits on display.
Support Offered:
- Summer classes/workshops for kids
- Classes/workshops for kids
- Enrichment classes/presentations
- Publishes a newsletter or journal
- University of Nebraska State Museum
307 Morrill Hall
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, NE 68588-0338
- Along with a number of natural history and science exhibits, the Museum offers the NASA Regional Teacher Resource Center, a number of workshops for both teachers and kids, and educational materials. They also have two other sites: the University of Nebraska State Museum at Trailside, near Crawford (308) 665-2929; Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park near Orchard (402) 893-2000.
Support Offered:
- Educational materials
- Classes/workshops for kids
- Field-based activities/excursions
- Professional development programs/workshops
Northwest
- Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture
University of Washington, Box 353010
Seattle, WA 98195-3010
Tel: (206) 543-5591
E-mail: burked@u.washington.edu
- The Museum encourages understanding of, and appreciation for, the natural and cultural history of Washington, the Pacific Northwest, and the Pacific Rim by developing and maintaining comprehensive, comparative collections and by conducting and encouraging research. Through their education efforts they offer engaging exhibits, public programs, and publications. They provide study kits to teachers, including an insect kit, which covers common orders of insects; Orders Coleoptera & Orthoptera; Order Lepidoptera; Orders Hymenoptera, Odonata, Hemiptera, and Diptera; and The Work of Insects. The Museum is currently being renovated (during 1997), and should be contacted before any trips are planned.
Support Offered:
- Orma J. Smith Museum of Natural History
Albertson College of Idaho
Caldwell, ID 83605
Tel: (208) 459-5011
- The Museum is the only natural history museum in southwestern Idaho, southeastern Oregon and northern Nevada. The displays are open to the public (most school days or by special appointment). The collections are used for identification of animal and plant specimens brought in by the public. Volunteers from the community also assist in maintaining the museum collections and library. To arrange for group tours call (208) 459-5211
Support Offered:
- Species identification help
- Pacific Northwest Museum of Natural History
1500 East Main Street
Ashland, OR 97520
Tel: (541) 488-1084
E-mail: pnmnh@jeffnet.org
- The museum offers multi-sensory exhibits, interactive video adventures, hands-on games and live animal programs. They also house a hands-on activity (discovery) center.
Support Offered:
- Live insect exhibits
- Publishes a newsletter or journal
- Pacific Science Center
200 Second Avenue North
Seattle, WA 98105
Tel: (206) 443-2880
E-mail: webmaster@pacsci.org
- The Center offers professional development workshops, education workshops/programs for kids, community education projects, summer camp programs and class activities at the Center.
Support Offered:
- Classes/workshops for kids
- Enrichment classes/presentations
- Professional development programs/workshops
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