Virtual School Programs

Our Live Student Programs are led by two Museum Educators in an interactive Zoom Meeting format for one class at a time (minimum of 10 students, maximum of 36). These programs are grade-specific and designed for a fully virtual classroom via Zoom. During portions of the program, students may be able to use the chat function, turn themselves on/off mute, be on/off camera, and/or answer poll questions. We are currently only offering these programs to accredited California schools (PreK–12). We may consider exceptions to these criteria. Please contact schoolprograms@nhm.org with any questions about qualifying for programming.

Our Live Museum Presentations are hosted by School Programs staff in a Zoom Webinar format for multiple classes at a time (with no minimum or maximum number of participants per school). Presentation topics differ every time, with the exception of our Paleo Puppetry Behind-the-Scenes program which features the same presentation each time. Students will be able to see and hear presenters, but presenters will not be able to see or hear your students. During portions of the program, students will be able to type questions privately into the Chat Box (students' typed responses will only be seen by the museum staff running the webinar). These programs are also streamed live to our YouTube channel; however, participants will only be able to submit questions to presenters if they are watching via Zoom.

Learn more about the difference between Zoom Meetings and Zoom Webinars here.

All of our virtual school programs are provided via Zoom. We ask that all participants download the Zoom application on their computer, tablet, or phone prior to program start time. We understand that some districts have certain requirements regarding distance learning applications. To discuss alternative arrangements, please email us at schoolprograms@nhm.org.

We can't wait to have your students join us! After registering, you will receive an initial confirmation email and later a separate email with your program Zoom link, ID, and password, the time and date of your program, tips to prepare students, details on what your role will be during the program, concepts, vocabulary, and standards that will be covered, and any relevant pre-program resources to share with your class. You will also receive a reminder email 24 hours prior to your program start time. If you need to postpone or cancel your program, we ask that you please do so no later than 1 hour before your scheduled program by emailing schoolprograms@nhm.org. 

Before your virtual experience, make sure to:

• Share the Zoom link with your students
• Confirm that your students have downloaded Zoom
• Go over basic Zoom features (i.e. joining a meeting, using the chat box, turning video or audio on/off)
• Ensure you and your students' names are correct in Zoom
• Prepare students to record their experience while participating (you can grab a copy of our digital field journal Google Doc here)

If you have any questions or did not receive the program link via email (make sure to check your spam folder!), please reach out to us at schoolprograms@nhm.org. We recommend adding our email to your address book to prevent our communication from ending up in your junk mail!

We have so many asynchronous learning resources to share with our educators that support student learning! To explore our library of educational materials, visit our Learning Resources webpage. There, you can search for lesson plans, videos, activities, educator guides, readings, photo galleries, and more–all organized by grade level and topic.

Thank you for your interest in our virtual programs! We encourage folks to visit this page regularly–program time slots will automatically update on our scheduler in real time. To be notified when more virtual program dates become available, subscribe to our email list here.