Field Trip Add-Ons
Add-ons can be added to a tour of any of our 5 St. Joseph Museums or can be brought into the classroom for onsite learning (within a 50 mile radius of St. Joseph, MO). Add-ons offer an additional Hands- on learning experience for your students and group. Ask about our field trip add-ons when you book today!
Recommended for Elementary & Middle School
Your group will get to tour the Native American Galleries at the St. Joseph Museums and learn directly from staff about the significance of some important items in our collection. Your kids will get a presentation on the many different Native American cultures and some of the amazing baskets, pottery, and beadwork they create. Attendees will get to create a piece of beaded jewelry to take home.
Native North America
This party is perfect for your young learners who love dinosaurs, rocks, archaeology, or just playing in the dirt! Attendees will earn about Missouri’s Dinosaur, the Hypsibema, and play dinosaur games. They will also learn the difference between geology, archeology, and paleontology. As part of this program children get to touch geological and archaeological specimens and explore an archaeological dig pit.
Dig Day!
Your students will explore St. Joseph’s daring and talented Owen sisters and their adventurous and unique career paths. Mary Alicia was a writer and folklorist who recorded the stories of African slaves and Native Americans in the St. Joseph area just after the Civil War. Luella was a geologist and cave explorer who identified the Loess soil that is unique to our area and advocated for preserving the beautiful formations in Missouri’s caves. Juliette was a naturalist who studied birds and botany and created art from her research. We will practice storytelling as Mary Alicia did, look at rocks and crack open a geode as Luella would have, and sketch some birds like Juliette. This program asks children to think about what careers they might want to participate in when they grow up, and is held at the impressive and historic Wyeth-Tootle Mansion.
Daring Owen Sisters
A presentation of local architecture including styles and features. Using Architecture Journals, children will do some sketching and draw a house they would like to live in! We’ll also create stained glass windows using colored tissue paper. Activities also include an Architecture Memory Game, designing floors with wooden tiles, and building with our many different building sets and oversized blocks. Your budding architects, builders, and engineers will also get to explore the 43-room Wyeth-Tootle Mansion.
ArtKidtecture
Your students will get to explore St. Joseph’s Black History at our Black Archives Museum location. Our staff and volunteers will provide a presentation highlighting famous black musicians, poets, and visual artists. Your kids will have the opportunity to listen to music by influential black artists, including St. Joseph’s own Coleman Hawkins. They will have a creative writing experience while listening to a poem by Maya Angelou. They will also learn about quilt making and imagery in African-American history and get to design their own quilt square.
Modern Black History through the Arts
A fun party to learn about how your brain works and ways to keep your brain healthy. Kids examine left and right brain attributes, and gain knowledge of some amazing facts about the brain! We’ll look at a model of the brain and learn all the components and what their function is, then play a game about the parts of the brain! Finally, the kids make “brain hats” to wear and take home! Attendees get to enjoy the immersive sensory room at the Glore Psychiatric Museum.
Brain Science!
Let your students experience being a Museum Curator for the day. They will learn what it is like working in a museum. They will get a tour of some of our exhibit and behind the scenes areas to see how we preserve our history, care for important objects, and create exhibits. Our staff will help your budding museum professionals create their own mini exhibits about their favorite subject.
Kid Curator
Recommended for Middle School & Up
Glore Psychiatric Museum
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The Emotional Toolbox
An in-depth look at stress and burnout, how it changes the brain, the body and your life. All participants make a flower sachet to start their emotional toolbox. This program is available in conjunction with a guided tour of the Glore Psychiatric Museum or can be presented onsite at your location.
The Scavenger Hunt
A fun and interactive way to explore the museum for your students! This hunt takes you to all 4 floors of the museum and can be added to your group tour at no additional cost.
Group rate for Emotional Toolbox is $12 per person, includes a full tour of the Glore and take home craft. Onsite presentations are $10 per person inside St. Joseph and Buchanan county. Call for pricing outside these areas.
Scavenger hunt is available onsite only. $13 per person includes full tour and goodie bag of gift shop items. Contact Kami Jones - kami@stjosephmuseum.org before booking your program.
St. Joseph Museums, Inc.
Intro to Osteology
Intro to Osteology is a hands-on learning experience from Osteologist, Tori Zieger. This interactive program will teach you how to identify different types of bones, how to determine identifying features like age, sex, stature, etc., as well as identifying current and previous injuries, injury timeframes and much more. This learning experience is recommended for Middle School and older and can be utilized for groups of 10 - 20. For larger groups this program can be modified to a presentation rather than a hands on workshop.
Group rate is $10 per person and includes full tour of the Archeology & Native American Galleries. Onsite is available for $10 per person inside St. Joseph and Buchanan County, contact for rates outside these areas.
SJSD rates may vary with partnership, contact Kami Jones - kami@stjosephmuseum.org before booking your program.
Archeology and Native American Galleries
Beading Workshop
Learn about Native American beading techniques, regional identification, and the importance of Native American heritage and culture, while you look at pieces not currently on display! Each participant will learn to loom bead and bead their own bracelet or keychain to take home.
Native North America
Teaches about the culture, heritage and lives of tribes in North America with a focus on culture, resources and everyday lives.
Native American Artifact and Object Based Learning
This program gives students the opportunity to handle real Native American objects as they build their inference and critical thinking skills.
World Archaeology and Ethnography
Students will have the opportunity to learn about world cultures through primary sources and artifacts with this customizable program.
Rocks and Minerals
In this program, examples of rocks and minerals are provided for students to handle and interact with, including Missouri’s state mineral. All programs are available in conjunction with a guided tour of the Native American Galleries or can be presented on-site at your location.
Beading workshop includes a full tour of the Native American galleries. Group rate is $13 per person and includes take home craft. Onsite is available for $11 per person inside St. Joseph and Buchanan County, contact for rates outside these areas. All other programs are $10 per person onsite, or $5 per person Zoom. SJSD rates may vary with partnership, contact Kami Jones - kami@stjosephmuseum.org before booking your program.
Black Archives of St. Joseph
Choices of a Missouri Slave
An in-depth exploration of the choices made by slaves during the time of the Civil War in Missouri and Kansas. Explore some of the choices and consequences of trying to escape slavery in the US.
Kenneth Clark Doll Study
Take an in-depth look at the Doll Study performed by Kenneth and Mammie Clark in the 1950's that was used in the Brown VS Topeka Board of Education and how it is relevant today.
Jeffery Deroine - From Slave to World Traveler
Learn the unique and amazing history of Joseph Robidoux's personal slave Jeffery Deroine, how he earned his freedom and became a legend.
Group rate for all Black Archives programs are $10 per person and include a full tour of the Black Archives Museum. Programs onsite are $8 per person inside of St. Joseph and Buchanan County. Call for pricing outside of these areas. Zoom presentation is available for $5 per person. FREE Civil Rights programming is available in February, call 816-232-8471 for more details.
Wyeth-Tootle Mansion
The Amazing EJ Eckel
In the history of St. Joseph, no one has had a greater impact on the city's appearance and atmosphere than the architect E.J. Eckel. A chance deviation in the train schedule brought Eckel to the city, and a single evening stroll through the developing urban landscape was enough to convince him of the potential for a successful career there. Throughout his extensive career spanning many decades in St. Joseph, Eckel designed a wide array of structures, ranging from impressive public buildings to humble commercial establishments. While many of his creations have been lost to time and demolition, a considerable number of them still proudly stand today.
Group rate is $10 and includes a tour of the Wyeth-Tootle Mansion.