Discovery Lesson Topics
Discovery Lessons encourage students to develop important scientific skills from making observations to designing experiments and interpreting data.
All lessons have been developed to meet Educational Standards, including Pennsylvania State Standards, New Jersey Core Curriculum Standards, and Philadelphia Core Curriculum Grade Levels.
The Discovery Lesson listed below are arranged by grade levels: Pre-K–2, 3–6, 7–9, and 10-12.
Programs using live animals are denoted by a 
.
Grades Pre-K–2
35 minutes
30 students maximum
$75 per lesson
1) Animal Habitats
All species need a habitat—a place to live that provides food, water, shelter, and space. With help from some live animals and museum specimens, discover how animals use adaptations to survive in their habitats.
Download the Teacher's Guide.
2) Animal Senses
How do we understand the world around us? We see, hear, smell, touch, or taste. Using a few of your own senses, investigate how some live animals use theirs to survive in nature.
Download the Teacher's Guide.
3) Bugs to Butterflies
What’s the difference between an insect and a spider? What senses does a butterfly use to discover its world? Explore the amazing world of boneless creatures using role-playing activities, museum specimens, and by touching live invertebrates.
(A visit to the Butterflies! exhibit must be booked separately.)
Download An Educator's Guide to Butterflies!: Lessons and Other Resources for Teachers.
4) Fur, Feathers, and Scales
Have you ever seen a duck wearing a raincoat? Animals don’t have to dress to protect themselves from the weather—they depend on their fur, feathers, or scales. Investigate unique animal adaptations and develop classification skills using live animals and museum specimens.
Download the Teacher's Guide.
5) Meet the Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs continue to inspire awe in people of all ages, but what exactly classifies an animal as a dinosaur? When and where did they live? How do we know? Take dinosaur measurements, touch real fossils, and participant in role-playing activities during this introductory dinosaur class.
Download the Teacher's Guide.
6) Soil—It’s Alive!
Grades K-2
Soil is not just dirt! Use magnifying glasses and your powers of observation to investigate the living and non-living “ingredients” of soil. Meet and interact with some common animal “recyclers” (such as worms, millipedes, beetles, and other invertebrates) that help make our soil.
Grades 3–6
35 minutes
30 students maximum
$75 per lesson
1) Ancient Adaptations
You won’t see a living Tyrannosaurus rex or a mastodon hanging around in your backyard (we hope!). So how do paleontologists investigate extinct animal adaptations and behavior? Solve some of the mysteries of ancient adaptations yourself by comparing and contrasting modern animal adaptations to extinct animals by examining fossils, artifacts, and museum specimens.
2) Butterflies: From Delicate to Dazzling
All animals have features that help them to escape predators, find mates, and stay alive. Investigate three examples of these adaptations in the animal kingdom using museum artifacts. Hone your investigative skills by identifying these same adaptations in butterflies in various stages of their life cycle.
(A visit to the Butterflies! exhibit must be booked separately.)
Download An Educator's Guide to Butterflies!: Lessons and Other Resources for Teachers.
3) Extreme Environments
What does it take to survive in the frozen tundra, a blazing desert, or other harsh environments? Using live animals and museum specimens, you’ll examine the adaptations that enable different species to thrive in the most inhospitable regions of our planet.
Download the Teacher's Guide.
4) Geology Really Rocks
From the salt on our food to the gas in our cars, we use geology in many ways. The fascinating world of rocks and minerals is revealed as you learn about the rock cycle and have a chance to handle real geological specimens.
Download the Teacher's Guide.
5) Plants and Pigments
Science and art are not isolated subjects; each can support the other. This class, inspired by the work of artist-scientist George Washington Carver, explores this concept. Through chromatography experiments, investigate some of the different colors and pigments found in plants and make plant-based inks to use in your classroom.
6) Science Detectives
The scientific method has never been this much fun! Working in teams, you’ll study a colony of live animals, design an experiment, and generate data to answer questions about behaviors, diet, adaptations and environmental needs.
Download the Teacher's Guide.
Grades 7–9
90 minutes
35 students maximum
$120 per lesson
1) Design Your Own Experiment
Turn your students into research scientists for the day! Working in teams and using a colony of live animals, design experiments that incorporate independent and dependent variables to answer questions about animal behaviors, diet, adaptations, and environment.
2) Keys, Trees, and Clades
How can organizing the approximately 10 million different species of living things into groups help us to understand how one species evolves from another? Working with specimens of vertebrates, you’ll investigate natural selection then develop taxonomic trees—called cladograms—that illustrate the evolutionary relationships between different species.
Grades 10–12
90 minutes
35 students maximum
$120 per lesson
1) Seeing Eye to Eye
Humans and other animals don’t always see “eye to eye.” In fact, different animals have unique adaptations to see things that are invisible to humans, including ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) light. Students will use hands-on activities and technologies, including an infrared camera, ultraviolet lights and even their own cell phones, to investigate some of the properties of light and then apply this knowledge by investigating light-sensing adaptations of animals from our living collections.