Montshire Museum: Workshops for Students

The Montshire offers the following workshops for both students or teachers at the Museum as a VisitPlus program or at your school. VisitPlus programs are $7.75/student and $5.25/adult (adult Montshire members admitted free). Adult members free with Montshire membership card. Minimum fee is $115.

Animal Tracks & Signs

Learn about the behavior of local animals through the signs they leave behind. This program will introduce your students to the tracks of many familiar mammals and birds. An indoor inquiry includes an up-close encounter with specimens from the Museum's collection of mounted animals. Grades 1-4.

Aquatic Explorations: Investigating Pond and Stream Life

Using microscopes and hand lenses, students will observe a fascinating world of dragonfly larvae, water scorpions, immature salamanders and more, all found in local streams and ponds. Students will learn that different habitats provide for the different needs of life within the Connecticut River watershed. Offered in the fall and spring. Grades 4-8.

Balancing Act

Balance is the driving force behind this workshop. From sports to structures, from human anatomy to human inventions, balance plays a key role. Includes a balance toy to make and take home. Grades 3-7.

Batteries, Motors & Bulbs

This workshop provides everything needed to get a light bulb to light and a motor to spin. Students will discover what happens when they use different configurations of wires, batteries, bulbs, and motors to complete an electric circuit. Grades 3-7.

Blood & Guts

Build a full scale model of your body and see what makes you tick, gurgle, thump, and creak. Grades 1-4.

Build a Better Battery

How does a battery work? We will make real batteries with simple, safe chemicals. We'll also measure the amount of electric energy our batteries produce, and connect them in both series and parallel circuits to power simple electrical components. Grades 5-8.

Cells!

Cells are the basic building blocks of life. In this new workshop, students will use microscopes to obeserve the differences and simularities between animal and plant cells. Students will also have a chance to practice staining techniques to more easily observe specific structures and functions of cells. We will also use a video microscope and other technology to further explore the roles of cells in organisms. Grade 5-8.

Curved Mirrors and Focusing Light

We will investigate how curved mirrors can focus light in often surprising ways. This effect will be further investigated as we integrate art and science in our work with anamorphic (stretched out) images. Grades 4-8.

Discovering Density

In this workshop we determine how we can change the density of liquids, and discover how to use this knowledge for some surprising effects. We'll see how liquids and solids sink or float and learn about solutions and concentrations. Grades 3-5.

Engineering & Structures

Individual and group building projects demonstrate the powers of triangles, simple arches, and other elements of structural design. Grades 3-6.

Forest Investigation

Get ready to sharpen your senses as you explore the forests using a variety of field study techniques. Teams of students will be given tasks that will illuminate plant and animal interactions that create the forest ecosystem. 75-minute outdoor program. Grades 4-8.

Go Fly a Kite

Each student will build and decorate a kite made out of strong Tyvek material to take home. Grades 3-6.

Here Comes the Sun

Learn how the Earth's movements determine the sun's position, observe sunspots, and make a sundial to take home. Grades 3-7.

Hot Air Balloons

What's lighter than air? Hot air! Your students will work in small groups building their own hot air balloons. The scientific concepts of density, heat, and other properties of air are revealed as students test-fly, re-design, and re-build their balloons to be launched a second time in the Museum's main hall. Grades 4-9.

Insects Etc.

In this workshop, students will use microscopes, the Montshire's insect collection, and live animals to look closely at the creatures that really rule the world! We will focus on the incredible diversity and fascinating structures of insects, arachnids and local crustaceans. Grades 3-6.

Mirrors, Reflection, and Symmetry

This workshop introduces principles of light and reflection as students create images with flat mirrors. We will also engage in hands-on investigations of the geometry and patterns of symmetry. Grades K-3.

Mixing Colors

This workshop explores colors —how to mix colors and how to take them apart! Students will be engaged in a variety of hands-on activities as they explore art and science through the colors around them. Pre-school-Grade 2.

Optical Illusions

Students will observe and create various optical illusions as we explore how our eyes work. We will explore such topics as animation, depth perception, after-image and persistence of vision as we find ways to trick our brain. Grades 2-7.

Outdoor Sleuths

Explore the Montshire's forests and fields in this outdoor investigation. We will develop "sleuthing" skills as we use our senses of touch, smell, sight, and sound, to discover the plants and animals that share these habitats. We will practice techniques needed to explore our landscape while learning to be good stewards of our environment. 75-minute outdoor program. Grades K-2.

Parachutes—Exploring with Air

Building and experimenting with parachutes and other paper craft will enable your students to discover the properties of air. Grades K-4.

Reinventing the Wheel

Have your students experience an engineering and design challenge as they use simple materials to "invent" a wheel and axle system. This fun, open-ended workshop is the perfect way to begin (or complete) your unit on simple machines. Grades 4-6.

Salamanders & Frogs

In the spring the woods and marshes come alive with amphibians migrating, calling and laying eggs. Students will investigate the natural history of these creatures by observing species from our living collection while practicing and developing scientific drawing skills. We also introduce songs of common frogs and toads in this one-hour workshop. This program is available May 1-June 15. Grades K-4.

Spinning Things

Explore the world of tops and gyroscopes. In this problem-solving workshop, participants will build and experiment with tops of their own design. Grades 5-8.

StarLab

The Montshire's portable planetarium system brings the stars, planets, and galaxies into view. Grades 1-9.

Tracks of the Past: Investigating Fossils

Students get to handle real fossils from the Museum's collection while learning about creatures from long ago. Using plaster of Paris, students will make a "fossil" to take home. Grades K-6.

Who Sank the Boat?

A reading of Pamela Allen's' book Who Sank the Boat? is included in this workshop, which integrates science and children's literature. Children will use aluminum foil to construct and test their own boats. Preschool-Grade 3.

Programs marked with the tree icon take place on Montshire's 110 acres of woodland and nature trails along the Connecticut River.

Montshire Presents!

These new 30-45 minute programs combine a staff-led multimedia presentation with hands-on artifacts from the Museum's collection. Each program is designed to connect with your curriculum. From natural history to the earth and space sciences, Montshire Presents! provides students with rich science content while exploring topics that are often difficult to observe directly.

Shaping the Land: A Lesson on Erosion

Water has the power to change landscapes in dramatic ways. By utilizing the technologies of aerial photography and Google Earth, your students will be presented with a bird's-eye perspective of how the Upper Valley and surrounding lands have been shaped by the action of flowing water. Grades 5-9.

A Storm on the Sun

The sun is not the calm orb that we see from Earth-- it is a dynamic nuclear furnace that experiences magnetic storms and massive eruptions. Find out how the same sun that makes beautiful aurora possible can also fry a communication satellite or endanger an astronaut. We'll use data from the newest solar observing technology and see how that information helps scientists understand our nearest star. Grades 6-9.

Tour of the Solar System

Using advanced interactive software we'll take a virtual journey through time and space, focusing on how objects in the solar system are organized and how we can observe planets from Earth. Incredible images from recent NASA missions will give us an up-close view of our cosmic neighborhood. Grades 4-9.

Wonders of Winter

Where do the animals go when the weather turns cold? Experience the fascinating stories of migration, hibernation, and adaptation to New England winters. Learn how to uncover clues to the hidden lives of mammals, reptiles, and birds by examining mounted specimens and other artifacts. Preschool through grade 2.

Fee: $6.75/student, $5.25 for each teacher/chaperone. Minimum fee of $75.

Winter Discounts for Workshops