Tours
For over a decade the Museum has pioneered challenging, relevant, and interactive programming for all ages and levels of ability. Our School Tours utilize and augment state and federal science standards. The program consists of docent-led discussions and activities and one optional self-led activity. During the tour students discuss a wide range of locally relevant natural history topics with their guide. Tours can be customized by request. The MNHM currently offers two different types of school tours: the Museum Tour and Geology Tour.
Please click on the "Contact Us" link on the right side of the page to preschedule your tour. Come explore with us!
Museum Tours are guided tours of the MNHM's exhibits that are entwined with State educational standards. Students tour through the museum with a guide and participate in discussions and hands-on activities about the ancient life and landscapes of Colorado’s Front Range including recent dinosaur discoveries made by Museum staff that were recently featured in Smithsonian magazine.
Museum Tour Information:
- Fees:
- $3.00 per participant.
- $30 minimum for less than 10 participants.
- Duration:
- Pre K to K: 60 minutes
- Grades 1-4: 90 minutes
- Grade 7+: 120 minutes
- Adult tour: variable duration
- Important Information:
- A chaperone/student ratio of 1:10 is suitable, but a ratio more that 1:5 is excessive.
- This tour must be prescheduled.
- Maximum group size: 75 participants.
Museum Tour Modules and Discussion Points:
- "Clues to Ancient Colorado" discussion:
- What is a Fossil?
- What branch of science studies ancient life?
- Did dinosaurs live in Colorado?
- What is a "Fossil Zone?"
- Has the climate and geography changed in Morrison through time?
- "Jurassic Fossil Zone" module:
- What was Morrison climate and geography like during the Late Jurassic?
- What kinds of plants and animals lived in Morrison during the Late Jurassic?
- What historical significance does Morrison have for paleontology?
- How was Jurassic Morrison similar and different to Morrison today?
- Activity: work on a fossil! Children assist with the preparation of dinosaur bone
- "Cretaceous Fossil Zone" module:
- What was Morrison climate and geography like during the Late Cretaceous?
- What kinds of plants and animals lived here during the Late Cretaceous?
- How does this habitat compare to other Morrison Fossil Zones?
- How was Cretaceous Morrison similar and different to Morrison today?
- Compare and contrast Morrison during Cretaceous and Jurassic. How are they similar and different?
- Activity: encounter the giant skulls of T. rex and Triceratops
- "Ice Age Fossil Zone" module:
- What was Morrison climate and geography like during the Pleistocene?
- What kinds of plants and animals lived here during the Pleistocene?
- How does this habitat compare to other Morrison Fossil Zones?
- How was Ice Age Morrison similar and different to Morrison today?
- Compare and contrast Morrison during "dinosaur time" and the Pleistocene. How are they similar and different?
- Activity: meet an Ice Age Survivor, (pet a live snake).
- Optional: Fossil Footprint Lab
- Students paint, identify, and take fossil track casts home.
- $1.00 per track. (Track not included with general tour admission).
- This activity is also offered as an outreach program for $30.00 per classroom.
- Optional, self-guided activity for younger students:
- "Sandbox of Science" fossil dig activity for young children.
Geology Tours are a new addition to the MNHM educational catalog in 2008. Geology Tours consist of a walk through the town of Morrison along Bear Creek Trail that interprets Morrison's geologic setting. Highlights of the Geology tour include stops at the Petrified Desert and Dinosaur Beach.
Geology Tour Information:
- Fees:
- $2.00 per participant.
- $40 minimum for less than 20 participants.
- Duration:
- Grades 4-6: 60 minutes
- Grades 7-9: 90 minutes
- Grade 10+: 120 minutes
- Adult tour: variable duration
- Important Information:
- This tour is not recommended for students below Grade Four.
- Dress appropriately for the weather. Bring a water bottle.
- A chaperone/student ratio of 1:10 to 1:5 is suitable.
- This program must be prescheduled.
- Maximum group size: 100 participants.
Geology Tour Stops and Discussion Points:
- "Stories Locked in Stone"
- What branch of science studies the Earth?
- What is the "rock cycle?"
- What are some of the basic guiding principles of Geology?
- How do we know how old rocks are?
- How is Earth history charted?
- How were the mountains made?
- What forces have produced the dramatic rock outcrops around Morrison?
- "Petrified Desert" tour stop:
- What was Morrison climate and geography like during the Late Coal Age and Permian?
- What kinds of plants and animals lived here during the Late Coal Age and Permian?
- How do these habitats compare to other Morrison Fossil Zones?
- "Walking through Dinosaur Beach" tour stop:
- Where are the Triassic age rocks?
- What was Morrison climate and geography like during the "Age of Dinosaurs."
- What kinds of plants and animals lived here during the "Age of Dinosaurs?" Were they all contemporary?
Program Goals:
- Students will be introduced to the “fossil life” of the Denver Metro area.
- Students will understand that climate, geography and life have changed through time.
- Development of a better understanding of geologic time, and when certain life-forms existed during Earth history will be achieved.
- The program will directly connect students with ancient life and landscapes of the Denver region.
Program Objectives and State Standards met:
- Identify the Morrison area as the original site of dinosaur discoveries in the western United States (Geography 1.2, 3.1).
- Identify the Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Stegosaurus and Apatosaurus as native fossil Colorado fauna (Geography 3.1; Science 3.1).
- Recognize that dinosaurs occurred at different times and that no species lived through the entire Mesozoic Era (Science 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 4.1).
- Describe dinosaurs and their environment in ecological groupings and contexts (Geography 3.1, 3.2; Science 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 4.1).
- Describe the process involved in bone preparation, including the handling and identifying of fossils (Science 1, 3.1, 3.4, 4.1, and 6.0).
- Describe how fossils form (Science 4.1).
- Recognize that the Age of Mammals (Cenozoic Era) followed the Age of Dinosaurs (Mesozoic Era) and that anatomically modern Humanity has only existed for a maximum of 130,000 years (Science 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 4.1).
- Recognize that modern reptiles and amphibians existed with Mammoths and other large mammals of the Pleistocene Ice Age in the Denver area. (Science 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 4.1).
- List two of Colorado’s modern native reptiles and amphibians (Geography 3.2; Science 3.1).
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