Interactive Lessons

Explore science up close with interactive STEM 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.

Automata: Storytelling Devices

Grades 3-5

Learn how to engineer three different storytelling devices to bring scenes to life from traditional Hmong, Maya, or Ojibwe folktales.

power plant energy turbine

Energy Connections

Grades 9-12

Virtually tour a power plant, explore how energy use impacts the Earth, and learn how people can collectively act against climate change in these online lessons.

A person sitting at a table looking at a laptop computer.

Scratch Explorations

Grade 3-Adult

Spark discovery with computer programming in Scratch, a free block-based online tool, with easy-to-follow video lessons for beginners.

A cartoon of two people standing against a wall. A person of color looks away from the wall while a white person begins to spray paint the wall.

Busted! Interactive experience

Grades 7-12

How do White people and Black, Indigenous, and people of color experience the criminal justice system differently? This interactive narrative shows the legal system through the eyes of Black, Indigenous and people of color youth. 

Nine fossils from Minnesota on display

Voting (for) Rocks

Grades 3-6

Paleontology and civics meet in a course collection all about fossils and elections! Engage students in the legislative process as they meet the candidates and dig deeper into their campaigns before voting as a classroom.

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.

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.

A collage of a diverse set of faces.

RACE: Are We So Different Virtual Exhibit Experience

Grades 6-12

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 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.

Computational Thinking Practices

EDUCATORS

How can you integrate what humans are good at and what computers are good at in your classroom? This resource has the answers.