Educator Resources: Solomon Family Insectarium
Grab-and-Go Field Trip Resources
All Grades
These easy-to-use worksheets encourage students to observe, sketch, compare, and develop evidence-based arguments during their visit. Educators can use them as is, adapt them to their students' needs, or create their own using suggested prompts. No pre-lesson or formal planning required.
Grab-and-Go Field Trip Resources
Activities and Materials
Grades K–5
Students observe a natural phenomenon—that insects exist in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors—to investigate how the physical traits of insects help them survive.
- Background for Educators:
K–5 pdf - Worksheets:
Kindergarten pdf |1–2 pdf |3–5 pdf
Specimen Observation
Grades 3– 5
Use this activity with any specimen in the Museum.
- Guide for Educators:
3–5 pdf - Student Worksheet:
3–5 pdf |3–5 gdoc - Student Worksheet for Composition Book:
3–5 pdf |3–5 gdoc
Grades 6–8
Students observe a natural phenomenon—that insects have a variety of different physical traits and diets—to investigate how the ecological roles of insects affect other organisms in the ecosystem.
Option 1: Insect Smackdown!
Students observe eight pre-selected live insects in the hall and use a March Madness-style bracket tournament to narrow down to just one insect and then investigate its ecological role (decomposer, herbivore, or predator).
Option 2: Explore Ecological Roles
Students observe any four live insects in the hall and investigate their ecological roles (builder, decomposer, herbivore, pollinator, predator).
Grades 9–12
Students observe a natural phenomenon—that ants within the same colony have different physical traits—to investigate how the different roles of social insects support the survival of the species and the individual.