Learn It! Do It! Days
On Learn it! Do it! Days museum educators staff hands-on stations around the Museum. Students explore these stations in small groups, participate in hands-on activities, experiments, and presentations, and keep some of the products they create.
All programs are $8 per student and chaperone.
Watch live Monarchs and see how they pass through each stage of the lifecycle. Look closely at butterfly and moth wings. Metamorphose when you make wings of your own and discover how moths and butterflies protect themselves from predators.
- Key Concepts: life requirements, classification, life cycles, structures and functions
Build a working weather station, explore extreme weather, travel through the water cycle, and see how clouds form. • This program includes a brief visit to our planetarium to learn about clouds.
- Key Concepts: changes in weather, severe weather, weather instruments, water cycle
See live animals! Join the Museum and our special guest, Leslie Science and Nature Center, to learn about animal classification, habitats, food chains and predator-prey relationships. Discover what’s special about our Michigan critters as you explore and classify them in this unique program.
- Key Concepts: classification, structures and functions, habitats, food chains
Learn the difference between rocks and minerals by examining them with stereoscopes. Find out what minerals are hiding in everyday household objects. Learn how earthquakes happen and touch a two-billion year old rock ! Students will leave with the start of a rock collection, including one each of the three major kinds of rocks. This program includes a brief visit to our planetarium for a look at the forces that shape our active planet.
- Key Concepts: rock cycle, types of rocks, minerals, erosion, plate tectonics, fossils
Explore the hydrosphere, the properties that make water special, the water cycle and watersheds, and why pollution matters. Look at pond water under a microscope, test water quality, build your own water cycle terrarium and watch the water cycle in action. • Add a 45 minute planetarium show, Oasis in Space, $2/person (special price with Water, Water Everywhere!).
- Key Concepts: water cycle, water properties, water quality
Join archaeologists from the Museum of Anthropology and the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology to learn about prehistoric and ancient cultures. Learn the differences between Neanderthal and Neolithic tools. Discover how we know what ancient people ate, when agriculture began, and even what games people played. Explore ancient writing systems and Egyptian artifacts. • Add a 45-minute planetarium show, Stars of the Pharaohs, $2/person (special price with World History Through Archaeology).
- Key Concepts: early civilizations, agriculture, evolution
Have a large group and need a different date?
Book your own Learn it! Do it! Day! Not all topics are available for private dates; call for details and availability.