Let us help you prepare your students for their museum visit! Educational Program Guides include background information, vocabulary lists and PASS and Oklahoma Academic Standards for Science objectives for each program.
PreK – Kindergarten
Dinosaur Eggs and Babies
What challenges does a baby dinosaur face while it is developing inside the egg? What adventures might it have once it hatches? Students will learn about two young dinosaurs in Cretaceous Oklahoma and participate in engaging activities and experiments.
Creature Features
Fur, feathers, scales and slime! Students will find out first-hand what characteristics make birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals both different and similar.
Natural or Not 
How can you tell the difference between things you find in nature and things that people have made? Students will classify a variety of objects to decide if they are natural or produced by humans and learn how people use natural resources, such as oil, in everyday life.
All About Amphibians*
What makes amphibians unique? Students will learn all about amphibians by observing live salamanders and tadpoles and participating in an exciting activity that takes us through the life cycle of a frog.
From the Earth*
Natural resources are things we use every day! What kinds of things do you use and where do they come from? Get ready to find out in this interactive Discovery Room Session.
*Discovery Room sessions and programs are unavailable at this time. Please check back soon or contact our Visitor Services department at 405-325-7797 or email visitor.samnoblemuseum@ou.edu.
Grades 1 – 3
Meet the Dinosaurs
What kinds of dinosaurs roamed Oklahoma? Were they meat eaters or plant eaters? Did they have sharp teeth, large claws or other interesting adaptations? Are they really all extinct? Students will discover the answer to these and other questions as they examine fossils and participate in Cretaceous role-playing.
Prairie Connections
What sort of special adaptations do prairie animals need for living in their wide-open environment? Let your students meet the prairie dogs, bobwhite quail and other natives of the Oklahoma grasslands and find out the surprising ways they meet the challenges of prairie living. Bet you can’t guess what a horned lizard eats!
Raw to Refined
How do people modify natural resources to create tools, household items and other basic goods? Students will examine and classify common objects based on their raw materials to discover how humans interact with the natural world.
Rocks and Beyond*
Geologists study more than just rocks. Mineral resources are an important part of the world we live in. Discover the difference between a rock and a mineral and learn how you use rocks as resources every day!
*Discovery Room sessions and programs are unavailable at this time. Please check back soon or contact our Visitor Services department at 405-325-7797 or email visitor.samnoblemuseum@ou.edu.
Grades 4 – 5
Dinosaur Feasts
What do scientists know about how dinosaurs ate? Students will compare dinosaur fossils and modern animal specimens to discover how both carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaurs crunched and munched their food.
Web of Life
How is a tree connected to a coyote? From plants to animals to fungus, students will use museum specimens to create a community, learn about how an ecosystem works, collect and graph class data and discover how all organisms in an ecosystem are connected.
Wild and Rare
Everyone hears about endangered species, but of the many plants and animals around us, which ones are endangered? Which ones are threatened? Which ones are surviving? Students will learn what makes a species vulnerable to extinction, then use museum specimens and hands-on materials to gather information and predict the futures of several species.
Bison Hunters
How did the Native Americans use the natural resources on the Great Plains to meet their needs? Student teams will analyze and measure tools, clothing and other artifacts from Plains Indian culture to discover the relationship between these peoples and their natural environment.
Rockin’ Rocks
Did you know that not every rock is the same? In this class, students will understand the difference between minerals and rocks, test the porousness of rocks and learn how sedimentary rocks are formed.
Grades 6 – 8
Clues to the Past
Did you know that southeastern Oklahoma was once a swamp at the edge of the sea? Students in this class will identify marine, wetland and terrestrial fossils and map their locations to re-create Oklahoma’s ecosystem as it existed 300 million years ago.
Ecosystem Interactions
How do ecosystems work? Student groups will build food chains using museum specimens, collect and graph data, and discover how the living and non-living components of an ecosystem are connected to each other.
Science ID
How does a scientist identify organisms and study differences among species? Students will observe, measure, identify and describe several different groups of museum specimens, from turtles to trilobites.
Rocks as Resources
Did you know that you could experience the rock cycle in minutes, rather than eons? In this laboratory, students will investigate the rock cycle by “making” sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks, and then experience the processes of erosion, sedimentation and soil formation. Students also will identify a variety of rocks and minerals through observations and tests.
Archaeology Lab
Students will experience the process of scientific archaeology from excavation through data collection, artifact identification, interpretation and reporting. The “sites” excavated represent five cultures from Oklahoma’s past, ranging from the dramatic mammoth hunting cultures of 11,000 years ago to the historic Wichita.
Geology Lab 
Did you know that you could experience the rock cycle in minutes, rather than eons? In this laboratory, students will investigate the rock cycle by “making” sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks, and then experience the processes of erosion, sedimentation and soil formation. Students also will identify a variety of rocks and minerals through observations and tests.
Grades 9 – 12
It’s Classified
Scientists classify species into taxonomic groups based on characteristics such as tooth structure, skull shape, nostril placement and body type. Students will identify and group a variety of museum specimens based on quantitative and qualitative characteristics.
CSI Red River
Students canoeing on the Red River find fish swimming erratically; a fisherman on the Mountain Fork of the Little River is stunned to find piles of dead and dying fish. What is happening? It is up to wildlife biologists to collect data and find the answers! Students in this class will use a variety of chemical tests, interviews and other data collection skills to solve the mysteries.
Mysteries of the Mesozoic
What can you tell about a prehistoric animal from a single fossil? Students will find out by uncovering clues from the Mesozoic era, the age of dinosaurs. Student teams will participate in an excavation simulation at one of six “sites.” They will collect data and then analyze their findings using principles of comparative anatomy.
In Deep Water
What happens when aquatic ecosystems experience changes in climate patterns? Students will examine what factors influence ocean conditions and marine populations. They will perform experiments, create and analyze graphs and gather information from scenarios in order to find out why our oceans are “in deep water.”
