Campuses:
The Bell Museum of Natural History offers memorable tours for groups of all ages, sizes and interests!
Standard tour packages are listed below, but groups with special interests can arrange more specific tours by contacting the museum well in advance. Most tours are led by enthusiastic University of Minnesota students studying education and the natural sciences, while some specialty tours are led by experts in the tour-specific field.
To register for tours at the Bell museum, call (612) 626-9660 or email belladmn@umn.edu. The registration office is open Tuesday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Explore the museum's habitat dioramas and experience the wide-open prairie, the shadowy coniferous forest, and the shores of Lake Superior. Museum interpreters bring these displays to life with lively discussion and fun, age-appropriate activities and lead visitors through the Touch and See room.
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $4.25/student
This tour combines the Discovery Tour with an additional half hour in our Touch and See room, featuring an extensive collection of live animals, bones, skins, specimens, rocks, fossils, and trees. Interpretive staff are available to assist student explorations.
Length: 1.5 hour
Cost: $4.75/student
For groups with a special project, for art classes, or for those who prefer to explore the Bell Museum on their own. Explore the mammal and bird diorama halls, the Touch and See room and special exhibit galleries.
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $3.50/student
Visit this highly-rated traveling exhibit, developed by the Smithsonian Institution, to learn how soil touches nearly every aspect of our lives. Through creative multimedia programs, interactive models, visuals and real soil monoliths, visitors can unearth the many ways we depend upon the health and productivity of soils.
Length: 1.5 hours
Cost: $5.00/student
Enhance your learning and get to know the collections of the Bell Museum through our tour opportunities including standard Bell Museum tours as well as special exhibit tours. Tours can be booked in advance.
Adult Tours Information Sheet - to download & print
The renowned diorama halls of the Bell Museum tell the story of Minnesota’s natural world. From moose to bald eagles to badgers to wolves - get a slice of life view of these animals in their natural habitat settings. Learn about these real Minnesota places then (early 1900s) and now. Study the technique and distinctive style of distinguished diorama artist, Francis Lee Jaques.
The diorama plus tour offers the same experience of our standard diorama tour, as well as the option to select one of the following:
• .5 hour tour of one of the current exhibits at the Bell
• .5 hour tour in the Touch & See Discovery Room
• .5 hour addition to regular tour, allowing further presentation on the history of natural history museum exhibitions and dioramas.
Exhibition closes September 16, 2012
We’ve combed through the Bell Museum’s more than 4 million specimens to find the most interesting and unusual creatures found on Earth. Satisfy your natural curiosity by viewing things like a 400-pound clam or killer pine cones. Learn about a specimen’s surprising story, see oddities and giants of the natural world, observe vintage models and play a guessing game.
Lepidoptera - butterflies and moths - are renowned for their delicate beauty and amazing diversity. From the mysteries of metamorphosis to their intricate ecological interdependence with flowering plants, butterflies have provided insights into many biological concepts and inspired people throughout the ages.
Visit this highly-rated traveling exhibit, developed by the Smithsonian Institution, to learn how soil touches nearly every aspect of our lives. Through creative multimedia programs, interactive models, visuals and real soil monoliths, visitors can unearth the many ways we depend upon the health and productivity of soils.
Tours are led by University of Minnesota students. Tour Size: maximum of 20 For a special Bell Museum Curator-led tour there is an additional charge of $60.
1 Hour Tour: $4.25/person
1.5 Hour tour: $4.75/person
Minimum total cost based on 15-person tour, but the number of tour attendees may be less than 15.
To make reservations for a tour or for further information, please call (612) 626-9660 or email: belladmn@umn.edu. The reservation desk is open Tuesday through Friday between 9 a.m. - 4:30p.m.