Overview

The Bakken Museum's offsite educational programs encourage curious minds to explore interactive programs and experiences designed to inspire engagement with science and innovation. The museum provides over 1,250 programs to over 44,700 individuals each year. Our outreach team travels across Minnesota and the Upper Midwest to provide engaging STEM programs to students in kindergarten through twelfth grade. The museum's programs use humor and exciting demonstrations to explore the connections between science, technology, and the humanities.

Additional Information

In-Person Outreach

Assemblies & Residencies

Your chance to experience the drama of science AND theater in your gym, auditorium or cafeteria. Perfect for libraries, scout groups, science fairs, and other family or youth events outside of the school day too.

Library Programs

Interested in bringing our programs to your library? We love to share science with our communities! Find out how to bring the excitement of STEM to a library near you!

Workshops

Let us WOW you with science, technology, engineering, and math as Bakken Educators bring exciting experiences right into your schoolroom.

STEM Inspiration Stations

These hands-on STEM activities are designed to ignite your imagination and rolled up into perfect packages for your event. Ideal for family nights, libraries, and other events outside of the school days.

Offsite Program Inquiry

Interested in learning more about a Bakken Museum Outreach Program? Great!

Tell us a little bit about yourself and the program that you'd like more information about and one of our outreach educators will get in touch with you to help plan your awesome STEM education program.

We will respond to your inquiry within 24-48 hours.

Assembly Programs

STEM ASSEMBLIES AND RESIDENCIES

The Bakken Museum's assemblies and residencies are a chance to experience the drama of science and theater together in your gym, auditorium, or cafeteria. It is also perfect for libraries, scout groups, science fairs, and other family or youth events outside of the school day; these customize-able programs bring entertainment and education to all ages.

COST: please contact us for details and pricing

Multi-Day Invention Residency

GRADES 3-6 - Introduce students to the concepts and skills needed to dive into inventing with this multi-day residency. Bakken educators will lead classes through a fun and engaging series of games, activities, and challenges that help students identify and develop skills in the design-thinking and engineering process. Each day ends with the introduction of a different inventor and the story of how they used these same skills to help shape our world. This residency is the perfect kick-off to an invention unit or project as it seeks to prepare then provoke excitement in students and send them off with the desire and ability to create.

COST: please contact us for details and pricing

PROGRAM LENGTH: 45 minutes COST: $350 first program , $250 each additional on the same day

Small Stuff, Big Deal

GRADES 3-8 - Considered to be the cutting edge of STEM research today, nanoscience explores some tiny things that may have a big impact on our lives. Engaging topics such as surface area, chemical reactions, and measurement, this funny, fast, and fiery show will invite students to explore how things behave differently when they are small.

PROGRAM LENGTH: 45 minutes COST: $350 first program , $250 each additional on the same day

NANOSCIENCE PACKAGE: SMALL AND SMALLER

GRADES 3-8 - Start with our fascinating Small Stuff, Big Deal Assembly as an introduction to the cutting edge of science on the smallest scale, then build on that understanding with an inquiry-driven Nano workshop. Students will take apply the basic ideas and excitement generated by the show to getting up close with demonstrations and work on small group challenges to get an understanding of this small science and its big possibilities.

COST: please contact us for details and pricing

Stem Residencies

Round Robin One-Day Residency

GRADES 3-6 - For an entire grade who wishes to stretch their experience and make connections across a few topics, this one-day residency option is an excellent opportunity to dig deeper. A team of Bakken educators will come to your school and teach either 3 or 4 different programs concurrently; then classes will rotate between them until everyone has experienced all the programs. A graphic organizer that travels with each class is used to help students track connections between the classes and allows each program to build on those before it, no matter what order they are seen in.

COST: please contact us for details and pricing

Multi-Day Residency

GRADES 3-6 - To make your Bakken experience really last, book a multi-day residency. String together a collection of workshops and/or assemblies that allow students to follow a scaffold-ed arc, specially constructed by the Bakken team from the topics you select. Fit these visits into a few days in a row or have us visit once a week for several weeks to allow to programming impact to stretch wider and go deeper, leaving students with a strong content base and the excitement to carry on the exploration beyond the confines of the program.

COST: please contact us for details and pricing

STEM Inspiration Stations (Library Programs)

With Inspiration Stations, participants will dig into the wonders of science by trying accessible, engaging activities that bring the inner child out of anyone. Visitors can use 5 minutes to check out our electrifying gizmos, or spend an hour perfecting their engineering innovation. Take-home activities will give visitors something to remember and share with the rest of your community.

This is a drop-in program that is facilitated by a Bakken educator. Guests can arrive and leave when they like. Our educator brings 3 table activities and moves between the 3 to guide and facilitate as necessary.

Audience Age: All Ages Program Length: 2 Hours Max # of Attendees: No hard limit. 5-10 people per activity. Pricing: $450

Workshops

Classroom Workshops

Bringing science experiences to your classroom

Let us WOW you with science, technology, engineering, and math as Bakken Educators bring exciting experiences right into your schoolroom.

30-MINUTE WORKSHOPS

LIGHTS ON: EXPLORING ELECTRICITY FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD

General Information

See Our 2025-2026 Outreach Education Packet

Hours: Tuesday - Sunday: 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

The Bakken Museum is an independent 501(c)(3). Memberships, admission fees, and venue rentals support the Museum's research, exhibitions, and educational programming.

Admission: Adults: $14 Seniors (65+): $12 Students (with ID): $11 Children (4-17): $10 Children (3 and under): Free Members: Free Native American Admission: Free Limited Income Admission: $1

Partnerships: We prefer it! Besides, this is your event, so make the most of it! We love joining in the fun and seeing friends from other STEM and Education organizations. If you have other partners at the event, please let us know who they are or what they are bringing, so we can avoid overlapping activities.

Collaboration: We work to leverage our collective genius in service of our mission. We listen to each other, support one another, work to better understand each other, and as a result, grow and evolve together.

Equity: We will strive to be a place where everyone is welcome, represented, and valued and will work to correct the structural imbalances which prevent that goal.

More Education Programs: The Bakken Museum brings in-person and digital outreach to schools, community centers, and libraries all over the region! Learn about bringing exciting STEM education to your community.