An educator teaching students about science

Online Learning Resources for Educators

Online STEM Education

Science is for everyone

Teachers and educators, you’re the best at encouraging the next generation to explore the wonders of the world and discover science they’re passionate about. 

Whether you’re teaching in-person, online, or at home, the Science Museum of Minnesota can provide resources like curriculum support, professional development, and online content to help you do what you do best: educate!  

Explore science up close with interactive lessons

We strive to advance science literacy on a broad range of topics—from engineering and computer science to paleontology and climate—because we envision a world where everyone has the power to use science to make lives better.

The Science Museum of Minnesota provides both free and paid resources for K-12 learners to explore science and spark a lifelong passion for STEM.

These online learning opportunities bring our collections, research, and exhibits together for educators to incorporate into their learning environments. While they’re designed for classroom teachers, homeschooling parents and informal educators are welcome to use them too.

Interactive Lessons

Designed by our museum educators, these virtual sessions are highly engaging and tied to academic standards. Thanks to the generous support of our sponsors, they are provided free of charge this school year.

A machine showing corn.
Be A Storyteller: Use Engineering To Build An Automaton

Grades 3-12

Build an automaton, a machine with moving parts, that tells the story of the relationship between corn and the people who developed it hundreds of years ago.

A person standing in a stream.
What’s in your stream?

Grades K–3

Explore and examine Minnesota’s streams to find macroinvertebrates in this student-paced course.

Sunset at Crosby Farm
Plant for the Future

Grades 7-8

This online resource for educators on water and climate will help learners explore their nearby environments and learn what they can do to protect them.

Three wind generators can be seen in the distance with blue skies in the background and green fields in the foreground.
Turn the Crank

GRADES 3-5

Electricity is a source of energy made by other forms of energy, and its existence is vital to life on Earth. Enter the exciting world of energy production in this student-led activity.

A row of powerlines disappears into the sunset.
Sources of Energy: Crank Up the Watts

GRADES 3-5

How is electricity produced, and what are the pros and cons? Learners will find local connections to energy and explore steps everyone can take to reduce the disadvantages of production.

A young girl doing homework at a desk by lamplight.
Personal Energy Use: Crank Smarter

GRADES 3-5

Practice energy conservation now to spark a lifelong passion for saving energy as an adult through an interactive game around daily energy use.

Child enjoying an engineering activity.
Engineer It: Solving Problems Together

GRADES 3-5

Tag along with an engineer as they use nature to design possible solutions for a noisy problem.

Dr. Alex Hastings peers through the skull of a triceratops.
Dino Discovery

GRADES K-2

A student-paced introduction to the nature of science using the wonder of dinosaurs to make discoveries like a scientist.

Close-up of T-rex teeth.
Dino Dentist

GRADES K-2

A student-paced exploration into fossils and what they have to teach us about dinosaurs.

A collage of a diverse set of faces.
RACE: Are We So Different Virtual Exhibit Experience

6-12 GRADES

Take a cultural and scientific look at race throughout history and discover the many reasons we should celebrate our differences and embrace our shared histories.

Additional Resources

A group of people sitting in a corner working on a project - two are holding notepads, and one is holding a laptop.
Build a STEM Justice Toolkit

EDUCATORS

Learn how or further develop your ability to reframe STEM learning as a tool to address and dismantle systems of oppression and build collective liberation.

A person sitting with a laptop in from of him. They're holding a pen and wearing headphones while looking at the laptop screen.
Mystery Objects Mini Lesson

AGES 8 - ADULT

Why are computers so useful to humans? What unique abilities do people have that computers don’t? Explore the unique strengths of humans and computers in this object-based investigation.

A drawing of a diatom.
Science is learning toolkit

ALL AGES

Downloadable science materials, coloring pages, and activities for all ages that are created to help you and your students turn on the science together.

Three kids gluing paper to plastic cups.
Learn from Home

ALL AGES

Find engaging information about paleontology, engineering, math, and other science topics to help develop your lesson plans or share directly with students.

Someone in an IDEAL Center program carrying out an experiment with flower pedals.
Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access, Leadership Professional Development

EDUCATORS

Together, we’re making a difference! By supporting teachers, principals, and district leaders, we are helping achieve systemic changes in educational systems.

Lending Library

EDUCATORS

The Lending Library is home to a rich collection of STEM curricular materials including models, specimens, lab equipment, probes and sensors, microscopes, math manipulatives, activity guides, and media.

A teacher talking to a student.
Standards Database

EDUCATORS

We directly support what you are teaching in the classroom. Search our database to connect our exhibits, programs, and resources to Minnesota Academic Standards by grade level.