Classroom Outreach

Bring the natural world right into your classroom!

These fun and engaging inquiry-based programs are designed to enhance your classroom curriculum and include specimens, artifacts, and live animals from our educational collections. These programs interconnect the science disciplines with math and social studies, and include many hands-on activities that support the NYS MST Standards.

DAYTIME CLASSROOM FEE: $100 per classroom / $85 per additional program on same day
EVENING CLASSROOM FEE: $150 per classroom / $100 per additional program on same day
An additional mileage fee will be added for roundtrip travel at the current state rate.

PRE-K PROGRAMS: 30 - 45 minutes Limit: 20 students per program session
ALL OTHER GRADE LEVEL PROGRAMS: 45 - 60 minutes Limit: One classroom, maximum 30 students
*Due to the hands-on and interactive nature of our programs and to ensure the best possible quality experience, we ask that you respect our class size limits. An additional fee of $85 (daytime program) or $100 (nighttime program) will be added if limits are exceeded. For more information or to make a reservation please call 716.896.5200 x338 or outreachreservations@sciencebuff.org.

DIGGING DINOSAURS
Grades Pre-K – 2

Students play paleontologists as they examine the fossilized teeth, horns, and claws of various dinosaurs to learn about the unique adaptations of these ancient beasts! They’ll also dig up and assemble their own dinosaur skeleton as they venture into prehistoric times.
 

INCREDIBLE INSECTS/BUGGY FRIENDS
Grades Pre-K – 2

Take a close-up look at real live insects and bugs – count their legs, look at their eyes, and learn about their other body parts. Explore insect and bug anatomy and the fascinating behaviors of these creepy and crawly inhabitants of the natural world.

NATURE DETECTIVES 
Grades Pre-K – 8

Put on your detective hat and get ready to play Sherlock Holmes and investigate the traces and clues that different animals leave behind. Students will use their senses to explore the sights, sounds, and smells of the natural world.

BIODIVERSITY BLITZ: ANIMALS OF OUR REGION 
Grades Pre-K – 8

Weave the web of life in the Niagara Frontier! Through a variety of interactive experiences, students will explore the ways that different species live and depend on each other. They’ll also learn about the three levels of diversity – genetics, habitat, and species.

**BIG TOP SCIENCE
Grades K – 6

Come one, come all to see the amazing ringmaster of science present demonstrations that spellbind with science, fascinate with physics, and captivate with chemistry.

GROWING UP IN ANCIENT EGYPT
Grades 3 – 6

Children in ancient Egypt did not have the internet, video games, or even television. What did they do for fun? How did they live? Students will discover what everyday life was like for the ancient Egyptians and compare it to life in the 21st century.

CRIME INVESTIGATION
Grades 3 – 8

Use math, chemistry, and physics in the guise of footprints, ransom notes, and fingerprints to solve a crime in much the same way police officers and forensic scientists do. Students will learn the science behind the scenes.

**SCIENCE BELOW ZERO
Grades 3 – 8

This exciting liquid nitrogen program reinforces basic concepts of heat and kinetic energy in a really cool way. Students learn about molecules, phase changes, explosions, implosions, pressure, and density through a series of exciting and engaging demonstrations using liquid nitrogen.

WETLANDS AND WATER QUALITY  
Grades 3 – 8

Using our Wetlands EnviroScape Model, students will learn what wetlands are and their functions and value. This outreach will focus on how humans affect wetlands and the importance of preserving them. A focus on point and non-point source pollution can also be integrated into this program.

Fat or Fiction   
Grades 3 – 8

Our nation is at a cross-road, battling an epidemic of obesity and diabetes. Education is one way to help decrease the incidence of both of these diseases by aiding in healthy food awareness and choices. Students will be engaged as they watch how much fat is in a chip as it burns, see what a clogged artery looks like, and feel what 5lb of fat feels like!

Hard Rock Café 
Grades 3 – 8

Have one of our museum educators come to your class with rocks from our collections! Students will work in teams to identify rocks and how they form and learn about the rock cycle while exploring plate tectonics and earthquakes.

**Program can be done as an Assembly Program