Education Division

Learning Technologies

Since its inception in 2000, the Learning Technologies Center has developed and implemented learning opportunities that empower youth and adults to explore their ideas and their world through design, invention, exploration, and play.  Learning Technologies
Sample Project:

• IDEA Cooperative

School Outreach

Teacher Professional Development

The quality of teaching, and more specifically teacher classroom practice, is critical to increasing student achievement. Improving teacher practice involves deepening their knowledge of science and scientific habits of mind, increasing their capacity in instructional decision-making, and increasing their use of exemplary curricular resources with students.
Sample Project:

• Science House

Youth and Family Programs

The Science Museum of Minnesota has been offering programs for children and their families for over 25 years. We see early childhood education in STEM as a key part of school readiness and a foundation for science literacy. Young children should be given experience with science investigations, given opportunities to observe and describe phenomena, given opportunities to manipulate and count things, and given opportunities to work with many kinds of materials and tools.
Sample project:

• Brighter Futures

Youth Science Center

The Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center is a national model for innovating high impact programs and services that support the educational and social development needs of at risk teens, especially those underrepresented in the sciences.  Kitty Anderson Youth Science Center

Exhibits Division

Environmental Sciences and Earth-system Science

The term Anthropocene is being used to describe the new geologic epoch that Earth has entered where humans are the dominant agents of planetary change. Through exhibits and programs, the Museum invites its audiences to explore where we are and what we as a species need to do to survive and thrive in this time of unprecedented global change.

Sample Projects:

• Center for Future Earth
• Anthropocene Atmosphere

Evaluation and Research in Learning

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Sample Projects:

• Brighter Futures
• Family Learning

Human Biology

People like learning about their own bodies. Human biology exhibits and programs explore life through the body connection and connect to community through visitors' own life experiences.
Sample Projects:

• Life's Journey
• Brighter Futures
• Cell Lab Outreach

Paleontology

Peoples and Cultures

The Peoples and Cultures program works cross-divisionally within SMM to bring to the public a comprehensive, vital, exhibition and public program that showcases the Science Museum's extensive anthropology collections.
Sample Project

• Fire!

Physical Sciences, Technology, and Mathematics

This program develops primarily interactive exhibits, activities, and programs that introduce museum visitors to key phenomena and concepts in physics, chemistry, mathematics, and engineering.
Sample Projects:

• Engineering Lab
• Math Core for Museums

Science and Social Change

Science and Social Change is an interdisciplinary programmatic initiative that seeks to engage new and existing audiences in dialogue about the role and impact of science in our communities and our world.
Sample Projects:

• Engage Globally, Act Locally
• Science and Social Change Exhibit Consortium

Special Exhibitions

Fresh, relevant, and exciting programming drives attendance and repeat visits to the museum and is essential to our financial health. One of the most effective ways to attract and serve a large and diverse audience is to provide special exhibitions that present a variety of new topics, introduce new objects, and explore new issues important to our visitors.
Sample Projects:

• Dead Sea Scrolls
• Space Walk

Science Division

Archaeology

Biology

Ethnology

Paleontology

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