Take a closer look and explore the world of minuscule bugs! Learn together through hands-on activities designed to show you how to classify and identify these numerous and diverse creatures! Participate in activities in our incredible arthropods gallery. Observe and touch live invertebrates, and then go outside and collect some of your own. Dig in the dirt and learn how invertebrates help people compost food waste into soil. Create your own scientific equipment that will help you continue the study of entomology at home. All activities are designed to be fun and interactive...

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Dive deep into the underwater life of marine animals! Learn all about the challenges of life at sea with hands-on activities. Investigate the museum’s collections with interactive gallery explorations. See and touch living ocean animals to learn more about the amazing adaptations they have to survive their salty habitats. Create your very own ‘dive log’ to document your favorite specimens of the day and continue the learning at home. All activities are designed to be fun and interactive experiences for elementary age students and their families to participate in together.

Fees...

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Learn to capture mammals with pencil and paper in this hands-on workshop that focuses on a wide variety of specimens from the museum’s collections. Explore step-by-step methods for developing your mammal sketch, as well as techniques for achieving greater accuracy and for capturing depth, volume, and texture.

All skill levels are welcome.

Instructor: Erica Beade

Fee: $40 members/ $50 nonmembers.

Advance registration required. 

Start your own natural history specimen collection with the help of a licensed taxidermist! Learn how to spread and pin an insect, embalm a specimen for fluid preservation, dissect an owl pellet, assemble a handmade flower press, and preserve botanical specimens.  All materials are provided, and students get to keep all of their specimens as well as their tools for future projects at home. Please bring a sturdy tote bag so you can carry your items home with you.

Must be age 18+ to participate in this workshop.

$140 members/ $150 nonmembers...

Read more about Cabinet of Curiosities Workshop

Learn how to prepare, mount, and finish a squirrel taxidermy project of your own. Using a tanned hide and a commercial taxidermy form, you will work with a licensed taxidermist to create a beautiful specimen that is worthy of display. A variety of poses will be available to choose from. Please bring a small box so you can carry your squirrel home with you. All other materials and tools will be provided.

Must be age 18+ to participate in this workshop.

$250 members/ $275 nonmembers

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What makes a mineral a mineral? Find out in this hands-on and interactive program. Be a geologist for the day and learn how to identify minerals. Discover the secret properties that make some minerals truly unique. Participate in gallery explorations of our mesmerizing mineral collections. Investigate the different uses of minerals and even create your own mineral pigment artwork to take home! All activities are designed to be a fun and interactive experience for elementary age students and their families to participate in together.

Fees: $10 members/$20 nonmembers, per person...

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The world of birds is full of diverse feather colors that combine to form amazing plumage patterns-- from neon yellow to somber black. How and why do birds achieve these decorative feats? Beginning with a microscopic look at feathers and expanding out to a broad perspective of patterns across bird families, Harvard University graduate student Dakota McCoy will use feather and bird specimens from the University's collections to explore how and why this diversity of forms arose. Artist Erica Beade will show participants how to capture the nuance of avian color and form in their...

Read more about Avian Coloration: An Art and Science Workshop

Explore the beauty of butterflies and moths! This three-hour workshop will introduce observational drawing techniques with pencil and then dive into colored pencil techniques used to create a rich, vibrant image. All skill levels are welcome.

Instructor: Erica Beade

Fees: $45 members/$55 nonmembers

Advanced registration is required.

Learn more...

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Come dig deeper and explore the fossil world of the dinosaurs! Discover what makes a dinosaur a dinosaur, and participate in a “fossil dig” with real dinosaur fossils. Explore our amazing collection of vertebrate paleontology with fun gallery activities. Compare dinosaurs to live modern animals and learn how paleontologists know what a dino’s daily life was like. Learn about dinosaur trackways and even create your own to bring home! All activities are designed to be a fun and interactive experience for students grades K – 5 to learn with their families.

Fees: $10 members/$20...

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Amy Gunzelmann, HMNH Science Educator

Join us to explore the amazing ways animals have evolved to run; as fast sprinters and as slow long-distance endurance runners. Come learn about current biomechanics research with graduate students from the Departments of Human Evolutionary Biology, and Organismic and Evolutionary Biology here at Harvard. Get an insider’s look at some of the tools used to study how animals move. Experiment with hands-on activities exploring sleek skeletons, mighty muscles, and springy tendons. Become a museum detective and spot ...

Read more about Speed, Sweat, and Stamina: How Animals Are Adapted to Run

What is a lizard, and how can it be used to answer questions about ecology and evolution? Through careful observations of lizards, see the characteristics that define lizards, and explore the question of how a lizard’s morphology relates to its habitat. Meet live lizards and take a brief behind-the-scenes tour of the lizard collection.

Instructor: Joe Martinez, Curatorial Assistant, Herpetology Department, Museum of Comparative Zoology

Fees: $45 members/$55 nonmembers.

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Frances Di Savino, Attorney and Author

For most of the twentieth century, the name Chianti brought to mind a generic Italian red table wine in a straw-covered flask, rather than evoking the storied wine region in the heart of Tuscany. Bill Nesto and Frances Di Savino, co-authors of Chianti Classico: The Search for Tuscany’s Noblest Wine, will share the story of their quest to discover the true Chianti. They will describe the evolution of Chianti as a wine region with historic, cultural, and geographic complexity, then guide guests through a...

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Jupiter, the largest planet orbiting the sun, remains a profound mystery. In 2011, NASA launched the Juno mission spacecraft to explore the composition, inner structure, origin, and evolution of this giant planet. In July 2016, Juno entered Jupiter’s orbit. Jeremy Bloxham, co-investigator on the Juno mission, will draw on his role in studying Jupiter’s magnetic field and discuss why learning about Jupiter is so relevant to understanding the early history of our solar system and the conditions in which Earth was born.

Lecture. Free and open to the public.

Free...

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Bring any and all surplus furniture, supplies, and equipment to the Lobby of 124 Mt. Auburn Street. Clothing, books, office supplies, kitchen goods, toys, baby supplies, tools, hardware and any thing else reusable is welcome here. Whether or not you donate, you are welcome to take anything you want for free. These Freecycles save money, reduce Harvard’s waste, and conserve the embodied natural resources and energy in manufactured goods.