Museum education staff strive to give schools, the University community, and other community groups access to the scientific resources of the University of Michigan, to provide outstanding educational programs, and to accomplish this with enthusiastic University student docents who teach visitors in small groups to ensure personal attention.
About 20,000 school children visit the Museum annually. Most participate in guided tours led by docents. The docents receive extensive training, mentoring, and evaluation from the Museum’s education staff. The Museum uses inquiry-based styles of teaching. Children are invited to look, touch, and question, with the exhibits as focal points.
Resources Available to Educators
- Descriptions of current program offerings for school and community groups, with special programs for preschool and kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school students, and community groups.
- Information about our Planetarium and its many programs.
- Teacher and student resources, including detailed tour descriptions and corresponding Michigan Curriculum Framework objectives, Educator's guide, discovery guides, and pre- and post-visit materials.
- Information and resources for U-M Groups and Classes
If you have questions, feedback, or can't find what you are looking for, please don't hesitate to contact the Assistant Director for Education, Kira Berman at 734.647.8574 or via E-mail.
For information about other University of Michigan outreach programs, click here to visit the U-M Center for Educational Outreach website.
Schedule Your Field Trip Before We Move!
If you want to bring one more class to UMMNH in the current location, schedule it before December 30, 2017! After 90 years in the Ruthven Museums Building, UMMNH will close at the end of this year, and reopen in our new location right next door in 2019.
From our Learn It! Do It! Days, discovery programs and planetarium programs, we offer many opportunities to extend classroom learning while still in this location.
While we are closed, you can bring Museum programs right into your classroom with our hands-on, inquiry-based workshops. (Available through December 14, 2018.)
Look forward to new science discovery experiences when the Museum reopens in 2019!
- Interactive, hands-on, and minds-on exhibits
- Innovative exhibits with new and favorite specimens and artifacts
- A new Digital Dome Theater explores a wide variety of science subjects
- Investigate labs for hands-on, public science
- And newly designed student programs both onsite and in your classroom!
