Keep learning with Smithsonian Museum of Natural History webcasts
Bring a Smithsonian Scientist into your classroom with Smithsonian Science How! Check out the Science How schedule below to get started, or preview our formats by watching a program from our video webcast archives.
Video Webcasts
These free, interactive, live video webcasts take questions from your students while introducing them to science concepts and practices through the lens of Smithsonian research and experts. The shows provide opportunities for your students to interact via live polls and Q&A with the scientist.
- Grades 3-8; optimized for students in grades 3-5
- Developed in collaboration with the Smithsonian’s children’s theater, Discovery Theater
- Scientists take your questions
- Complementary teaching resources
- 30 minutes long
- Aligned with national science standards
Schedule
Here is the webcast schedule for the 2019-2020 school year. Want to suggest a topic for a future show? E-mail us at [email protected].
Upcoming Shows
We’re moving our popular webcast series to video webinars to connect your learners to natural history science and careers more often. Webinars will be presented on Zoom video. All times are Eastern Time.
- March 27, 2020, 11 a.m. – Video Webinar: Reading 500-million-year-old Fossils with Paleontologist Karma Nanglu. (We’ll post the link to join the Zoom webcast soon.)
- Register | Get Related Resources and Meet Karma
- April 2, 2020, 2 p.m. – Video Webinar: How Birds Stay Warm with Ornithologist Sahas Barve.
- Register | Get Related Resources and Meet Sahas
- April 9, 2020, 2 p.m. – Video Webinar: Exploring Minerals with Geologist Gabriela Farfan
- Register
- May 14, 2020 – Video Webinar: What Makes Fish so Fishy? featuring Ichthyologist Adela Roa-Varón
- (Register 11 a.m. | 2 p.m.)
Completed Shows
- October 8, 2019 – Tracking the Health of Coral Reefs: Live from Belize
- November 14, 2019 – What’s a Lichen? How a Smithsonian Scientist Studies a Unique Symbiosis with Manuela Dal Forno
- December 12, 2019 – Forgotten Elephants of Deep Time with Paleontologist Advait Jukar
- February 6, 2020 – How Birds Stay Warm with Ornithologist Sahas Barve
- March 12, 2020 – The Cambrian Explosion of Life with Paleontologist Karma Nanglu
Video Archives
We’ve produced 52 Smithsonian Science How webcasts over the last six years. They feature Smithsonian experts and cover specific topics in the disciplines of Earth Science, Life Science, Paleontology, and Social Studies.
Ask Science How
Teachers and students: Do you have a question for our science experts? Send us your questions, either before or after a webcast. We’ll send you the answer. Ask Science How
Do these webinars count toward Continuing Ed credits? I’d love to watch these with my kids for their school-at-home and if it counts as credit for me then all the better.
Hi Kristina, please check the continuing ed calendar. If they are not there, please consider adding them. Because they are aimed at kids, I’d suggest taking the case that great naturalists focus on the future, especially during a pandemic.