Family-friendly Discovery Days explore science topics through hands on activities -- and they are free with museum admission!

Discovery Days: Build It!
October 18, 2025
11:00am to 3:00pm

Hey future inventors, builders, and engineers—this day is for you!

Join us for Discovery Days: Build It! and get ready to design, create, and build your way through hands-on challenges for every age.

Let your imagination soar and see just how big, tall, strong, and creative your ideas can get. Whether love tinkering, problem solving, or just making something awesome, Discovery Days: Build It! will have plenty of opportunities to test your skills and bring your ideas to life.

Building activities include:

  • Structural Engineering: Build the tallest tower with limited materials—how high can you go?
  • Electrifying Creations: Power up circuits to light things up and make sounds.
  • Animal Savior: Design a wildlife crossing to keep creatures safe.
  • Bridge Builder: Can your bridge hold up under pressure? Put it to the test!
  • Trebuchet Trouble: Build a catapult strong enough to knock down towers.
  • Maze Mysteries: Craft a complex and tricky maze for hex bugs.
  • Imagination Creation: Dream up a creature so epic it could rule the world.
  • And much more!

While you’re here, don’t miss out on even more fun! Stop by our newest traveling exhibit, Permian Monsters: Life Before the Dinosaurs, check out our newest Acheson Planetarium show, Taylor Swift: Dimensions, or plan a trip to the exploreLAB to get up close with dino bones and critters available for an additional fee.

Discovery Days: Build It! activities are FREE with the purchase of general museum admission.  

Discovery Days: Fossil Fest
November 26 and November 28, 2025
11:00am – 3:00pm both days

All activities are included with general Museum admission.

Explore life long ago through fossils, models, casts and more, and learn the fascinating stories that they tell.

Activities will include:

  • Construct a Pangea puzzle to see how our current continents once formed the giant landmass Pangea.
  • Cockroaches are extremely adaptable and have been around for millions of years. See live examples of one kind of cockroach that is facing extinction and hear the story behind the efforts to save it.
  • Construct a Permian-style food web and see how the participants were affected by the Great Dying.
  • Paleontologists often uncover a single bone or body part and try to reconstruct an entire creature based on that. What will you come up with from a curious Permian fossil?
  • Permian creatures faced increasing pressure from climate change. Design your own creature to overcome and thrive with these challenges.
  • And much more!

Complement your experience with a visit with a visit to our latest traveling exhibit, Permian Monsters: Life before the Dinosaurs, an exploreLAB dinosaur program, or a visit to the Acheson Planetarium (additional fees apply).

Discovery Days: Hooray for Science!
December 26, 27, 29, 30
11:00am to 3:00pm
December 28
12:00pm to 3:00pm

All activities are included with general Museum admission.

Celebrate the many branches of Science with experiments, activities, building projects and so much more!

Activities will include:

  • Snowflake science – Discover the many shapes of snowflakes and make your own to take home
  • Snow walking – How do animals – and people – move around in heavy snow? Experiment to find out!
  • Shadow play – Investigate with light and shadow and make your own shadow puppet
  • Star Stories – Hear an unexpected Native American star story and design your own story-themed constellation
  • Giving Back – Make a fully-consumable feeder to help local critters survive the season
  • T. rex and You – Compare yourself side by side to a full-grown
  • T. rex Table rockets – Create a bang with chemistry!
  • Flying High – Experiment with flight design in our Swirling Vortex
  • And more!

Round out your visit with a dinosaur program in exploreLAB or seasonal programming in the Acheson Planetarium (additional fees apply).

Discovery Days: Science of Food
January 10, 2026 11:00am - 3:00pm

All activities are included with general Museum admission

We all enjoy eating food, but is there science behind what we consume and how we experience it? Taste, make, experiment and ponder your way through the following activities – all are hands on!

  • Savor a tasty, protein-packed snack that was popular with primitive people across the world – if you dare!
  • Learn how Great Lakes Native people preserved their food and try your hand at corn pounding
  • Do you think we experience food solely through our mouths? Take our Taste Challenge and find out!
  • Experiment to create entertaining reactions between common pantry foods
  • Peer through a microscope to see the real reason why we wash our rice – there’s more to it than you think
  • Microorganisms that make our food? See them in action!
  • Saliva plays many roles but you may not know this one – try it and see!
  • Food advice is everywhere. Can you separate the myths from reality?
  • And more!

All Discovery Days events are free with Museum admission. Acheson Planetarium shows and exploreLAB dinosaur programs are available for an additional