❀ We are OPEN for Easter, Sunday, March 31, 2024 ❀ Read More
The Montshire will be open for regular hours (10am - 5pm) on Sunday, March 31, 2024. ❁ ❀ ✿
Known nationally for our innovative outreach programs, the Montshire offers an array of options for your classroom or special event to support your teaching or community.
We work with you to strengthen the ecosystem of science learning through support and collaboration at any location — whether that’s in the classroom, community fairs, school open houses, festivals, and private parties.
Through our outreach programs, specifically designed to meet the needs of students and educators, the Montshire aims to engage young minds and enhance the education experience.
For more information or to book a program please email us at registrations@montshire.org or call 802-649-2200 (Monday–Friday, 8:30am–5pm).
Grades: pre-K–8
Transform your classroom into a bustling learning lab through our hands-on, inquiry-based workshops. (Also available for non-school groups.) Our educators arrive complete with an unusual conglomeration of materials in their teaching tool kit and work with one class at a time for a high-quality science experience.
For younger elementary students: special focus is made on understanding how the Earth’s movement affects day and night.
For middle elementary students: explore how the Earth’s orbit affects seasonal variations in visible constellations.
For upper elementary and middle school students: dive into more advanced topics such as moon phases or the location of planets.
Inside the dome, the program focuses on the current night sky with emphasis on learning how to locate key stars, constellations, visible planets and the moon.
With only one class under the dome at a time, students become engaged in learning about the night sky. Your astronomer-in-residence will spend 45-60 minutes with each class (up to five classes per day). StarLab fits in gyms, cafeterias, or any other large room with an 11-foot ceiling.
Pop-Up Science travels to community fairs, school open houses, festivals, and private parties. You provide the space; we provide the tools for learning. We will customize the programming to fit your needs and audience. Multiple programs may be offered during an event to keep things fresh and fun. We bring everything!
Using simple materials like batteries and motors, families make whimsical art-producing contraptions. Challenging and super fun! Best for ages 8+.
We bring our one-of-a-kind vertical wind tube, you bring the ideas. The challenge: to float a flying contraption at just the right height in the tube using our diverse assemblage of reuseable materials. Requires access to an electric outlet.
Anatomy models can be assembled and disassembled to discover how our body is organized. Use real tools like stethoscopes and x-rays to learn about our bodies.
Explore circuits through experimenting with batteries, motors, bulbs and switches.
Check out the world of the very small! Depending on the season we can provide different items to look at including insects, seeds, pond water or just a cool assortment of natural and human made objects.
Design, build and test a wind vehicle as you practice engineering skills.
Meet one of the Montshire’s live animals or fossils up close, learn about each animal’s unique features, ask questions and share stories in these live virtual programs facilitated by one of the Museum’s Science Educators. For pre-k through grade 8. Programs are conducted using Zoom.
Learn about the amazing world of social insects through a virtual visit with one of the Montshire’s favorite exhibits, the leaf cutter ant colony. Get an up close look at soldier ants and workers cutting leaves, and a chance to see into their fungus garden.
Get ready for some fun as we feed the frogs and toads right in front of your eyes. Meet the museum’s amphibians, learn how to tell them apart, and see who’s got the fastest tongue this side of the Connecticut River.
Meet the museum’s giant Madagascar hissing cockroaches as they crawl all over us and try to hide up our sleeves. You’ll have a chance to see their extra-long antennae, spiky legs, and hidden heads way up close.
Come out of your shell and say hi to the Montshire resident reptiles – the turtles! We’ll look at our painted turtles up close, examine the bones of a giant snapping turtle, and explore the shells of other common turtles found in New England.
Meet the most secretive resident of our large fish tanks. Get an up close look at our crayfish — both in the water and out — as we count claws, look for gills, and discover it’s interesting life cycle no matter whether you call it a mudbug, crawdad or crayfish!
Explore a blast from the past by observing the Montshire’s fossil collection up-close! Students will be guided through observing fossils of plants, sea creatures, and dinosaurs as we look for clues related to the history of life.
Fee: $100 for a 30 minute program.
For more information or to book a program please call 802-649-2200 (Monday–Friday, 8:30am–5pm) or email montshire@montshire.org