MSU Science Festival


Main Navigation

  • Home
  • About
  • Attend
  • Schedule
  • Schools
  • Digital Resources
  • Get Involved
  • Media

General STEAM


From SciFest Partners:

MSU Extention | Educational Resources

Michigan State University Extension has assembled this collection of helpful educational resources for parents and caregivers. From science to financial literacy, whether for toddlers or teenagers, we encourage you to take advantage of these activity books, guides and other resources.

MSU Extention | STEAM Ideas without Technology

There are several ways to incorporate science, technology, engineering, art or math (STEAM) into your family’s day without turning to technology.

MSU Museum

Links to MSU Museum resources and great things that other museums are offering right now. 

Impression 5 

Now that we're all learning at home, here are some hands-on activities that explore a variety of basic scientific concepts themed around your favorite Impression 5 exhibits! Enjoy.

Air Zoo 

The Air Zoo's new and exciting digital platform. Publishing new content every day, in an effort to bring family-friendly and engaging education-based videos to the world - in the comfort and safety of their own homes.

Leslie Science and Nature Center

We're excited to offer a week of activities and programming for families at home in our Virtual Spring Break Camp! We’re taking camp and streaming it right into your homes!

Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum | STEM at Home

Discover science and connect to the natural world while staying safe and healthy at home! Check out our virtual programming schedule and browse through our list of resources, activities, crafts, videos, and more to help continue to bring science into your world.

Belle Isle Conservancy | At-Home Activities

Due to Michigan's stay at home order, we haven't been able to connect with our visitors in the same way we usually would. Our staff has been working hard to create and curate educational and entertaining resources for you to enjoy from the comfort of your home. 

Charles Wright Museum of African American History | Wright Now

Over the years, The Wright has hosted performers, speakers, authors, singers and dignitaries from across the African diaspora, to educate, enlighten, inspire, and entertain our audiences. Now, visitors like you can experience these incredible moments from the comfort of your own home through our new online collections.

DNR | Educational Resources 

As many of Michigan's younger residents are currently out of school, we would like to provide some fun and educational activities aimed at history and the outdoors. We've put together an extensive list of links and materials to provide kids and their caregivers with plenty to do.

Grand Rapids Public Museum at Home 

The GRPM offers various resources accessible from home, including exploring the Museum’s Collection, activities and more!

IQ Hub | Learn with Us Online

The IQhub offers some of the exhibits and lessons to our fans, so they can have some  self-guided learning experiences at home.  Please keep checking back for new featured exhibits.

Kalamazoo Valley Museum | Online Educational Activities

Featuring weather tools you can make at home, special exhibits, explore the museum virtually, and more.

LCC Youth Programs | Serious Online Fun Series

Stay Home, Stay Safe, Stay Smart! Need another tool in your keep-the-kids-busy-but-also-learning tool box? Tune in on Tuesdays at 2pm on our Facebook Page to view your free video lessons each week!

Michigan Audubon | Educational Resources

These resources can be used by groups or as individuals, in a public or private setting. Although some of them may be marketed for children, they are opportunities for continued education for all ages. Michigan Audubon will continue adding to this page to provide more materials to help initiate environmental education and involvement of youth in the state.

Michigan History Center | Michiganology

Welcome to Michiganology.org where Michiganologists focus on the study of Michigan.  A Michiganologist is someone who is curious about Michigan, shares its stories, and understands and takes pride in Michigan’s unique identity. If you are not already a Michiganologist, we can help!

NOAA - Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory | Educational Tools

Learn about the Great Lakes with these online tools, activities, and other resources.

Woldumar Nature Center | Resources

We have a number pdfs you can pull up on your phone or print off. Some are mini field guides, some are activities and some are resources for doing self-guided volunteer work.

Yankee Air Museum | Creativity Hangar

The Museum’s online resource to distance learning. We have put together several online activities such as storytime, games, crafts, puzzles, oral histories and more so that you and your children can learn about aviation no matter where you are!

Board of Water and Light | Kids Korner

Energy comes in many different forms and we use it in many different ways. Learn why we need it and the evolution of how we use energy on this fun, interactive page with activities for kids.

Grand Ledge Area District Library | Code Club

Coding and computer science are a new kind of digital literacy, and libraries all over the U.S. are stepping up to help everyone build 21st century skills. Come join our very own Code Club — No coding expertise necessary. We are hosting a Virtual Code Club on Zoom.  Coders can come chat about coding, and share which projects they’re working on. Kids or adults are welcome to join and start coding.

MSUFCU | Financial 4.0

Learn, play, and ask all about finances. 

MSUFCU | Cha-ching!

Ready to learn the importance of saving? Want to learn how to make great financial decisions for your future? You’re in the right place!

West Michigan Digital Jigsaw Puzzles

Browse through our selection of Digital West Michigan Jigsaw Puzzles below, and click through to start building your favorite! Once you select a puzzle, you can set the number of puzzle pieces before you begin building to make the puzzle easier or more challenging. Check back weekly, as we’ll be adding more puzzles to our collection!

All Ages:

STEM-Works

Welcome to STEM-Works, a resource for teachers, mentors, parents, STEM professionals, volunteers, and everyone passionate about getting children eager to learn about science, technology, engineering, and math.

NASA Jet Propulsion Lab Learn at Home 

Launch rockets, build robots, explore your world and beyond! Our projects, toolkit and contests will take you into space without ever leaving Earth.

University of Michigan Museum of Natural History 

Explore natural history from the comfort of your home! Our Museum@Home page will be updated regularly while the museum is closed.

Activities from Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum 

Check out spring nature activities that you can do at home or on a walk in a local park or nature area.

Exploratorium 

From educational media to classroom activities, from a behind-the-scenes look at ideas we’re tinkering with to the vast riches of our Explore section, our teaching tools support educators and provide hundreds of ways to play and learn. For all ages, in both formal and informal learning settings, these essential tools spark curiosity, exploration, and understanding.

NASA 

Let NASA bring the universe into your home.

NOAA 

Here’s a quick roundup of NOAA’s most popular educational resources to help you safely hunker down while learning about the ocean and atmosphere.

Science at Home from Museum of Science and Industry Chicago

Keep learning in place and at your pace with science activities and topics you can access anytime.

PBS Learning Media

WGVU and PBS have curated FREE, standards-aligned videos, interactives, lesson plans, and more.

NOVA Education 

NOVA Education supports STEM education and engagement nationwide through the creation of resources from NOVA's broadcast and digital productions.

Association of Science and Technology Centers Online Programming

As most science and technology centers and museums are closed to the public temporarily, many are finding ways to continue to serve their communities by offering educational programming, resources and materials. Follow them on social media for a steady stream of ideas for exploring science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

Michigan eLibrary

Range of free online eBook providers.

GoOpen Michigan

Explore our library of open education resources and join a network of Michigan educators who are dedicated to using high quality, openly-licensed educational resources.

At home Activities

Learning Resources from the Science Museum Group.

Natural History Museum Try this at Home

On this page you'll find activities and ideas to occupy yourself and family at home, in your garden or local outdoor space.

Peabody Museum @ Home

Welcome to your hub for digital resources, educational tools, and interesting online curiosities of the Peabody Museum!

USGS Learning from Home

Your first stop for learning resources from USGS!  We will be updating this weekly throughout the spring of 2020, so keep coming back.

Learning Space With NASA at Home | NASA/JPL Edu

Looking for space and science activities you can do with NASA at home? Here, you can find instructions for making things like rockets, Mars rovers and Moon landers out of materials you have at home – or with templates you can print out.

Annenberg Learner

Resources that you can filter by science, mathematics, and STEM/STEAM.

STEM@HOME

An initiative launched by the STEM Learning Ecosystems Community of Practice, providing resources for families and educators to engage children's learning.

Chegg Study

Explore educational resources from Chegg Study on topics including economics, chemistry, physics, calculus, statistics, psychology, biology, and more! 

Especially For Kids:

Khan Academy 

Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom. We tackle math, science, computer programming, history, art history, economics, and more.

Michigan Virtual

Are you looking for ways to keep your student(s) learning during the extended school closures? Michigan Virtual will be offering the content of over 70 of our high-quality online courses FREE to educators and parents as a resource to supplement student learning. This course content includes all digital lessons; however, it does not include assessments and is non-credit bearing.

Study Island

Study Island for Home enhances learning and helps your child master math, ELA, and science skills.

ExpeRimental 

A series of short films making it fun, easy and cheap to do science experiments at home with your children.

Scholastic Learn at Home 

Day-by-day projects to keep kids reading, thinking, and growing.

STEM Lab - Activities and Experiments for Kids

Looking for easy ways to get your kids interested in science? STEM Lab provides fun, hands-on STEM activities for kids of all ages to do anywhere!

Science NetLinks 

Science NetLinks is a premier K-12 science education resource produced by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. At Science NetLinks, you'll find teaching tools, interactives, podcasts, and hands-on activities, and all of it is free!

National Geographic Kids 

Collection of games, videos, and other education resources from National Geographic designed for kids.

Ology 

A science website for kids from the American Museum of Natural History.

Story Time From Space

STEM & Literacy - Astronauts on Space Station read books and conduct science experiments for kids!

Captain Planet Foundation 

Explore the Captain Planet Foundation's recommended resources for learning at home! Filter by grade band, topic, and type of activity.

National Weather Service Education Resources

Need help while kids are at home with you? Check out our lessons, games, and videos to keep them engaged in science. Click on the link or thumbnail below to get things started.

SEERIH Innovations

We have lots of resources for you to explore: science 4 families, enquiring science 4 all, tinkering for learning and more. 

PBS Nature

Looking for inspiration, boredom-relief, or lesson plans to keep kids busy? Here are some PBS NATURE resources for children of all ages.

Mid-Michigan Children's Museum Play At Home

Visit our Play At Home Catalog for a complete list of projects, crafts, experiments and more!

Great Lakes Children’s Museum Resources

Unlimited learning, from wherever you are.

STEM Activities for Kids

Anytime can be the right time to explore STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). Explore our favorite experiments, engineering challenges and demonstrations with these fun hands-on STEM activities! Materials are easy to find, most activities take an hour or less, and the STEM learning is limitless.

STEM Resources from Texas Instruments

Encourage students to explore, evaluate and explain the world around them with project-based classroom activities, interactive technology and educator professional development that helps teachers put it all together in the classroom.

STEM Gems

STEM Gems are short discovery-based experiences. They involve little or no materials and may be easily implemented by educators who are not STEM specialists.

Maker Mania: STEM Resources

With the mounting disruption in our society as a result of COVID19 the PAST Foundation is here to provide parents/guardians and educators with access to some of our STEM educational resources!

Howtosmile

Search almost 3,500 of the very best STEM activities on the web. Find handpicked activities from your favorite science museums, public television stations, universities, and other educational organizations. All activities are available to anyone, free of charge. After launching in 2010, and serving millions of web visitors, howtosmile has become the largest and longest running online collection of STEM activities for educators and learners from all over the world. 

talkSTEM

talkSTEM works hard to make unique and high quality STE(A)M educational content freely available to all children.

Let's Talk Science | STEM At Home

Encourage active learning and discovery outside of the classroom - discover hands-on activities using materials commonly found at home, and watch an engaging web series or videos from around the web, curated by subject.

Children's Museum Virtual Activities

Check out this list of virtual activities offered by children’s museums, which will be updated regularly!

Cranbrook Institute of Science Learning Resources

Cranbrook Institute of Science has curated some useful learning resources, linked by topic on the right, that can be used to help augment the "home school" experience.

National Inventor's Hall of Fame STEM Activities

Thanks to the hard work of our expert education team, the National Inventors Hall of Fame® (NIHF) regularly publishes STEM activities that encourage students to pursue their innovative dreams.

Educational Resources from Energy Department

For kids of all ages, there is always something new to learn about science and technology. The Energy Department supports science education through educational online content, resources for parents and teachers, and more.

Lessons and Activites from Madison Audubon

Madison Audubon's education team has developed a variety of active, engaging, and artistic activities and projects for students to learn about the environment, wildlife, and birds! Use any of these single lessons to get your students (or kids) excited about nature!

Lessons and Resources from Olivia V. Sanderfoot

To support stay-at-home learning, I thought I’d post the lesson plans, presentations, and activities I’ve put together over the years as a guest scientist and environmental educator. Please feel free to download these resources if they’d be useful to your family in continuing your children’s education during this challenging time.

KBS K-12 Education Resources

Since 2006 Fellows and K-12 Partnership Teachers have been creating lessons, many of them based on science taking place at KBS.

Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center Educational Resources

Activities to learn about biofuels and more.

Lessons & Activities - K-12 Education

From free curricula to all-inclusive kits, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a wide variety of lessons and activities to captivate learners of all grade levels.

Project Learning Tree

Avoid going stir-crazy during self-quarantines with these simple family activities; they’re the perfect way to keep kids engaged through active participation as they learn about nature, and suggest ways we can lessen our environmental footprint at home and beyond.

Chester Zoo Learning Resources

Explore our range of resources to help with teaching and learning at home and at school.

Discovery Education Daily DE

The Daily DE features a grade-band appropriate learning activity for every day of the week. From digital interactives to virtual field trips to fun science experiments and more, these daily activities are great for keeping the learning going at home!

GirlStart STEM at Home

Let’s have some hands-on STEM fun at home! Here you will find engaging activities, engineering challenges, virtual Starry Nights, and other STEM experiences that you can do at home with the whole family. 

 

Digital Resources


Digital Resources
  • STEAM Events All Year Round
  • Citizen Science
  • Virtual Tours
  • Videos
  • STEAM You Can Do at Home
    • General STEAM
    • Science
    • Technology
    • Engineering
    • Art
    • Mathematics
  • Podcasts
  • Apps
  • Educators

Footer and Contact Information

Michigan State University Wordmark Michigan State University Wordmark
  • Call us: (517) 353-8977
  • Contact Information
  • Site Map
  • Privacy Policy
  • Call MSU: (517) 355-1855
  • Visit: msu.edu
  • MSU is an affirmative-action, equal-opportunity employer.
  • Notice of Nondiscrimination
  • Spartans Will.
  • © Michigan State University