Expeditions to the Bell

During August 11–15, 2026 we invite you to join us on the Bell’s Learning Landscape to observe and ask questions about the process of measuring, cataloging, and preparing natural history specimens!

In an expedition-style set up outside of the museum, students and scientists will work together to demonstrate how scientific collections are created. Visitors will be able to watch live dissections as the team works together to take various data, preserve different types of samples, and produce specimens for the Bell Museum natural history collections, an active research institution utilized by scientists around the world.

Visitors to natural history museums encounter biodiversity specimens that offer close-up views of nature. Their awe is often followed by questions about where and how specimens were obtained. Even more shocking to visitors is that the specimens on display are a small percentage of the holdings of a museum collection. The Bell aims to address some of these questions of why museums have specimens and how they are obtained, preserved, and used. 

About this program

During the summer of 2021, the Bell Museum conducted a pilot internship program, with the goal of expanding hands-on STEM learning opportunities to high school students via a six-week paid summer Research and Collections internship. Students were recruited from Twin Cities area high schools with a large population from historically underrepresented communities in science and at the museum. This paid internship paired high school students with Bell Museum science graduate/undergraduate students and curators to work in the museum’s collections and research facility. In addition to their mentoring and internship experience, students would work with the Public Engagement & Science Learning team to build science communication skills that they would utilize through guest speaker appearances in Bell Summer Camps and Bell Live virtual programs.

Expeditions to the Bell began as a public outreach component of the internship that gives students the opportunity to prepare bird and mammal specimens by simulating an expedition-style setup outside the Bell Museum. Bell Expeditions continues to bring students and scientists together as they demonstrate to visitors how scientific collections are created.

This program has been generously supported by Whitney and Elizabeth MacMillan.