Explore the natural world in Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s homeschool classes! Students ages 5-18 from the Western Pennsylvania homeschool community are invited to attend interactive, engaging sessions designed to complement homeschool science curriculums. Read on below to learn more about the schedule and descriptions of all our classes and to register your student today – classes fill up quickly!
2025 Homeschool Classes listed below meet at the museum on the following Mondays.
Session 1: Winter 2025 Dates
- January 27, 2025
- February 3, 2025
- February 10, 2025
- February 17, 2025
- February 24, 2025
Last day to register for Winter:
January 20, 2025
Session 2: Spring 2025 Dates
- March 31, 2025
- April 7, 2025
- April 14, 2025
- April 21, 2025
- April 28, 2025
Last day to register for Spring:
March 24, 2025
Spring 2025 Classes
Backyard Biology (Spring)
Ages 5-7
1 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Discover the amazing creatures living in and around your home! Explore the museum’s exhibits and backyard to look for critters, search for insects in leaf litter, and go on a mammal scavenger hunt. Create your own birdfeeder to attract birds to your yard, plus craft a bug hotel and make art from nature. Conduct plant pigment experiments and dissect fruits and vegetables. Uncover backyard micro mysteries using magnifiers and a video microscope.
Dino Discovery (Spring)
Ages 8-10
1 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Explore the world of massive plant eaters and vicious carnivores! Discover dinosaurs and the world they lived in with hands-on activities including digging for fossils and making a fossil cast. Take a hike around the museum and nearby Schenley Park to compare life in the Mesozoic Era to your world today. Investigate how modern animals compare to dinosaurs and other animals from millions of years ago. Piece together evidence from the past to design and replicate dinosaur habitats.
Invasive Species (Spring)
Ages 11-13
1 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Investigate the environmental impact of invasive species, including plants, animals, insects, and mollusks. Explore nearby Schenley Park to find and identify invasive species in our area, and learn what factors make a species thrive. Discover how scientists and environmentalists combat harm caused by invasive species. Complete a “Wanted: Ecological Outlaws” project to create your own plan to prevent and deter invasive species where you live.
Life Science 3 (Spring)
High school
9 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
The spring session of Life Science focuses on adaptations, human interactions with ecosystems, natural selection, and evolution. Investigate animals from the past and connect them to their modern relatives. Identify key evidence in the process of evolution and how natural selection leads to adaptations of populations. Explore the museum to identify endangered and extinct animals, and make connections to climate change and human impact on the environment. Model climate change scenarios and discover their impacts.
For cancellations to a single session, participants are eligible for a full refund minus a $10 processing fee if canceling more than one week before the session begins. For cancellations made less than one week before the session starts, but before the second class in the session, participants are eligible for a refund minus a $10 processing fee and the pro-rated cost of the first class. No refunds will be issued after the second class meeting.
For cancellations to the three-session bundle, the above refund policy applies. If a bundle is cancelled after a participant completes a session, the participant will be charged the price of the attended session and will be refunded the price of the following session(s), minus a $10 processing fee.
Special note: The school year package savings apply per learner, not per family. It will be applied to the cost of one learner for all three sessions.
Inclement Weather Policy
For children’s programs scheduled to occur December through March, the following inclement weather policy will be used: Should hazardous conditions result in cancellation of classes, announcements will be made on local Pittsburgh television stations including KDKA, WTAE, WPXI, and FOX. Decisions are based on the needs of all students and instructors, some of whom drive considerable distances to Oakland. Makeup days may be scheduled for missed classes. During any inclement weather, please use your own discretion to attend for your own safety and that of your student.
