SCHOOL EVENTS and FESTIVALS

November is Native American Heritage month. Join the Indiana Native American Indian Affairs Commission and the Indiana State Museum for a special day of learning and exploring Native American’s continued impact in the community, Indiana and beyond.

We invite you to come celebrate Indiana’s birthday at the Indiana State Museum with fun, interactive activities that encourage students to think about what it means to be a Hoosier – past, present and future. Join us for our Statehood Day presentation that includes a reading from a winner of the Statehood Day essay contest. We’ll finish the presentation by singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Indiana!  

Statehood Day programs will also be held at the Indiana Statehouse. The Indiana Statehouse Tour Office, in conjunction with the Indiana Center for the Book, holds an essay competition to commemorate Indiana Statehood Day each year. More information can be found here.  

Enjoy the sounds of the season in the spectacular atmosphere of Celebration Crossing as school and community choirs, bands, ensembles and soloists perform holiday music daily in the museum’s Great Hall.

Bring your students to explore Paleozoic seas, discover mysteries in Ice Age caves, test their knowledge of Indiana’s geology and investigate the world under their feet. Hands-on activities and million-year-old specimens in our galleries help illustrate Indiana’s geological past. Shopping for gems, fossils and minerals from around the globe is available.

Students will connect to the museum on a deeper level as they interact with hands-on, minds-on activities throughout the museum on these special STEAM Days. Explore and discover Indiana’s connections to science, technology, engineering, art and math through community exhibitors, interactive activities and design challenges.

There is limited space so register early! Only STEAM-related field trips are offered during this time. No self-guided field trips available on these days.

On your mark, get set … for the second-greatest spectacle in racing! The Indiana State Museum and Scouting America, Crossroads of America Council invite you to build and race Pinewood Derby cars down the two-story, 125-foot racetrack and watch them speed across the finish line!

Innovative Hoosier students are invited to get involved in becoming the solution to global climate issues. Students can submit science challenge projects on a range of topics including aquaculture, vermiculture, composting, social awareness, urban farming, alternative energy and recycling initiatives in their schools and communities. Monetary prizes will be awarded to the schools of the winning students to assist in continuing eco-science-related work.