Programs/Tours

A Natural History of Michigan

See, hear, and touch museum tours

Tour the exhibits on your own or with a student guide.  Please provide at least one adult chaperone for every 10 students.  Allow 45-60 minutes for a guided tour tailored to your grade level.  Choose the emphasis you would like:

1. General overview.  What makes Michigan a fascinating place to live
2. Prehistoric beginnings.  Glaciers, waterways, mastodons
3. Michigan history.  Native American/Euro-American contact, fur traders, the Civil War, lumbering, and early 20th-century Michigan home and work life
4. Wildlife in Michigan.  Michigan's abundant wildlife vividly illustrated through the chain of life

• Touch-it stations.  Hands-on activities are included with each emphasis listed.  They allow students to explore earth and life sciences as well as history.

High-touch programs

Individual, 30-minute classroom programs that can be added to your exhibit tour.  For example:

• Make your own pottery.  Use traditional techniques to make a clay pot
• Form a fossil.  Create your own fossil using plaster and/or clay
• Play the "Web of Life" game.  Explore human impacts on a natural ecosystem
• Dig a cookie.  Apply archaeological techniques to discover what's below our feet.
• There are more hands-on activities being added periodically.

Teachers wishing to schedule a visit to the museum or schoolhouse:

• Program Registration--print, complete and fax form to (989)774-2612

• Contact us by email

• Call 989-774-3829

NOTE:  Please schedule at least two (2) weeks in advance to reserve a time slot and avoid conflicting visits.

Suggested donations:

• Tours:  $0.05 per student and $1 per adult
• High-touch programs:  $2 per student
• School Resource Kits:  $5 for 3-day loan