BOOK a FIELD TRIP

What adaptations helped animals survive during the Ice Age? Do we see these adaptations in present-day animals? Students will investigate and discuss what adaptations future animals will have based on our changing environment. Cost: $75 for groups of up to 15 students, $5/each additional student Capacity: Minimum of 15 students, maximum of 25 students

Explore how creations from Indiana innovators like Wilbur Wright sparked ingenuity and change as students create their own inventions. They will be challenged to work as a team and create a prototype to solve a problem at school. Cost: $75 for groups of up to 15 students, $5/each additional student Capacity: Minimum of 15 students, maximum of 25 students

Students will use the design process to brainstorm solutions, build prototypes and test their creations just like real Indiana engineers. They'll also explore potential and kinetic energy as they engineer devices to launch objects. Cost: $75 for groups of up to 15 students, $5/each additional student Capacity: Minimum of 15 students, maximum of 25 students

Students will discover first-hand how paleontologists search and uncover Paleozoic and Ice Age fossils while investigating dig pits, examining a real fossil slab, and making their own trace fossil. Cost: $75 for groups of up to 15 students, $5/each additional student Capacity: Minimum of 15 students, maximum of 25 students

Students will delve into the process of how living creatures become fossils, learn about fossil records and explore the clues fossils leave behind - just like an Indiana paleontologist! Cost: $75 for groups of up to 15 students, $5/each additional student Capacity: Minimum of 15 students, maximum of 25 students

Indiana is home to a wide variety of rocks and minerals! It's the perfect place for students to explore the rock cycle, and investigate rocks and minerals like a geologist through hands-on activities. Cost: $75 for groups of up to 15 students, $5/each additional student Capacity: Minimum of 15 students, maximum of 25 students

Pioneers used simple machines and engineering to create a new life in Indiana. Students will explore how simple machines and innovations made their life easier as they design and build their own compound machine. Cost: $75 for groups of up to 15 students, $5/each additional student Capacity: Minimum of 15 students, maximum of 25 students

Students will explore Newton’s Laws of Motion while engineering a solution to protect fragile fossils as they are transported back to the museum. They will use the design process to brainstorm solutions, build prototypes and test their creations, and then reflect on the process - just like real Indiana engineers! Cost: $75 for groups of up to 15 students, $5/each additional student Capacity: Minimum of 15 students, maximum of 25 students

What’s that object? Is it a cheese grater or a toaster? Students use deductive reasoning to uncover the true stories behind curious artifacts. Tailored content varies according to grade level. Grades 3-5 will focus on goods from Indiana and how items from the late 1800s–early 1900s evolved to objects we use today. Grades 6-8 will focus on the ingenuity of Hoosiers to make everyday life easier before modern technologies were easily accessible. And grades 9-12 will focus on how science and technology improved everyday life by exploring the evolution of objects.  Cost: $120/groups of fewer than 30 students, $4/each additional student Capacity: Minimum of 30 students, maximum 220 students

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

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! Join us in the Great Hall for our Statehood Day presentation that includes a reading from the winner of the Statehood Day essay contest and learn what it means to serve from officials from state agencies and offices. We’ll finish the presentation by singing ‘happy birthday’ to Indiana!

Enjoy the sounds of the season in a spectacular holiday atmosphere 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 are available on these days. Pricing: $6/student, $2/chaperone, FREE for teachers; A $50 non-refundable deposit is required to book and goes toward the program fee.

On your mark, get set … for the second-greatest spectacle in racing! The Indiana State Museum invites you to 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.