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Museum to You: River Residency - Stream Table Simulation Workshops

Bring a river into your school with the Museum’s 12-foot stream simulation table!   The U-M Museum of Natural History offers three different workshops providing students hands-on opportunities to explore how water flows, erosion, effects of flooding, the consequences of human activities on water quality, and much more.  Students work in small groups and record their observations in accompanying student journals.  All workshops are inquiry-based and meet state standards for social studies and the new Next Generation Science Standards. 

Schools provide a dedicated space for the table during its residency and access to electricity and water. The table will be set up the day before the program begins. Museum facilitators can conduct any combination of workshops for up to 4 classes per day. Fees include mileage up to 25 miles.

Fees: 1 day: $1100, 2 days: $1500, 3 days:$2000, 4 days: $2500.

Schools may choose any combination of the workshops listed below. Contact us at (734) 764-0480 or email ummnh.office@umich.edu for more information or to schedule a program.

List of Available Stream Table Workshops:

Water, Weather and a River Community - Grades K-3. (60 minutes. Limit 30 students.) Where does water come from and where does it go? Students will explore what happens to water when it rains, model flood dangers in a river community, conduct experiments about water flow, and discuss how rivers are used.

How Water Shapes the Land - Grades 2-6. (60 minutes. Limit 30 students.) Students discover how flowing water causes erosion and sedimentation, shaping and creating various landforms. They will explore how human activities influence erosion and test various methods of erosion control.

Protecting Our Watersheds - Grades 3-8. (60 minutes. Limit 30 students.) What is a watershed and why is it important? Students explore how various human activities affect water quality both in a stream and as groundwater.

The Stream Table was funded by a grant through the National Science Foundation.