Join the Journey
Burpee Institute
Find your community. Feed your curiosity.
Burpee Institute is a science pipeline where curiosity grows into connection, experience, opportunity, and research. With divisions for professional scientists to teens to adult learners, Burpee Institute has entry points, growth paths, and access for all stages of scientific thinking.
Whether you’re here to search collections, meet people who share your interests, try something new, build scientific skills, or contribute to real museum research, there is a place for you to begin.
Start where you are. Go as far as your curiosity takes you.
For Adults
Morning learning over coffee to themed evening parties at the museum.
For Caregivers & Family
Art, science, and nature activities to inspire curiosity.
For Youth
Dinosaur clubs, archaeology clubs, and science connections!
For Teens
Museum Unlocked after hours events to special themed clubs.
For University
Field work, lab preparation, and collections experience
For Educators
Curriculum, museum loans, student experiences, professional development, field experience
For Scientists & Researchers
For Adults
Mornings At The Museum
Coffee, conversations, and deeper dives into natural history.
Museum Nights
After-hours science, activities, and social connection.
For Caregivers & Family
Club: Nature Nurture
Club: Critter Corner
For Youth
Club: Dinosaurs & More!
Dig into paleontology through fossils, museu collections, hands-on activities, and real science fun!
Club: Archaeology & Culture
Discover past cultures through artifacts, archaeology, stories, and hands-on exploration.
BSA Scouts Classes
Earn badges and explore science through Burpee’s in-person and online Scout programs.
Homeschool Science Days
Turn the museum into your classroom with interactive science stations, demonstrations, specimens, and live animals.
For Teens
Club: Museum Unlocked
The museum is yours after hours. Hang out, explore, play, and connect with other teens.
Club: Zoology & Evolution
Go deeper into animals, evolutions, live specimens, and conservation with hands-on science and your new critter and human friends!
20 Emerging Scientists
Ready for more? Twenty promising young scientists are selected each year for mentorship, projects, experiences, and deeper involvement at Burpee.
For University
For college students & Emerging Professionals
Burpee Institute provides opportunities to move beyond the classroom and gain hands-on experience in museum collections, laboratory preparation, field research, and scientific practice.
Hanksville-Burpee Dinosaur Expedition
Bring your students to a working dinosaur expedition. Collaborate with our PI and field research team to learn how to prospect and excavate fossils in the Morrison Formation. Student rates apply, scholarship opportunities are available. Bring your university group, or coordinate trips for individual students.
- When: May & June Dates
- Where: Hanksville-Burpee Dinosaur Quarry, Utah
PaleoLab Residency
Gain real practice in a working paleolab under the guidance of our science team. Train, gather experience, and prepare for your next steps.
- When: Fall Semester, Spring Semester, Summer Semester
- Where: Burpee Museum, Rockford IL
For Educators
Museum in Your Classroom
Teach With Real Specimens & Museum Resources
Your classroom doesn’t have to be inside a museum to use museum-quality resources. You can check out Burpee Tools for your classroom! Explore specimens, teaching collections, kits, taxidermy, fossils, natural-history resources, and curriculum materials available to educators through Burpee and our partners. Each session introduces resources teachers can borrow or access and models ways to turn them into inquiry-rich classroom experiences.
- When:
- Where: Burpee Museum, Rockford IL
Beyond the Water Cycle: Raising the Level of Elementary Science
Hands-on doesn’t automatically mean minds-on. Move beyond repetitive activities and crafts to build elementary inquiry science experiences that ask students to investigate, analyze, question, compare, design, and explain. Teachers will leave with practical activities and approaches they can use immediately, along with strategies for increasing the level of scientific thinking without making science inaccessible to young learners.
- When:
- Where: Burpee Museum, Rockford IL
Educator Science Residency
Don’t just learn about science. Spend time doing it.
Step behind the scenes at Burpee for an immersive experience alongside museum staff in a real scientific environment. Educators choose a residency pathway and gain hands-on experience with the methods, tools, specimens, questions, and processes scientists use. Guided reflection helps participants translate those experiences into richer science learning for their own students.
🦴 Paleontology Prep Lab
Work with fossils and experience preparation, documentation, collections practices, and the process that takes a fossil from field discovery toward research.
🧬 Biology Wet Lab
Work with specimens, laboratory tools and biological methods to prepare items for our osteology collection, gather data and lead projects.
🏺 Anthropology & Collections
Work with cultural materials and collections while exploring documentation, interpretation, preservation, and the questions researchers ask of objects.
- When: Fall Semester, Spring Semester, Summer Semester
- Where: Burpee Museum, Rockford IL
For Scientists & Researchers
For Scientists & Researchers
Put Burpee Collections to Work
Burpee’s collections are here to be studied. We welcome scientists, scholars, students, and research partners who want to examine specimens, access collections and data, develop collaborations, or connect their work with ongoing research at Burpee.
If you are pursuing a specific research question, looking for comparative material, exploring a potential collaboration, or interested in joining field or collections-based research, start a conversation with our science team.
Research at Burpee may include:
Collections Access: Request access to Burpee’s paleontology, biology, geology, and anthropology collections for scholarly research.
Visiting Researchers: Arrange an onsite research visit to examine specimens, collections, records, and associated data.
Specimen Loans & Data Requests: Inquire about research loans, images, measurements, locality information, or other available collections data.
Collaborative Research: Explore opportunities to collaborate with Burpee scientists, collections staff, students, and external research partners.
Field Research: Connect with Burpee’s active field programs and developing research projects.
Research Partnerships: Universities, museums, agencies, independent researchers, and other scientific organizations are invited to explore opportunities to work together.
For direct collections inquiries: cole.phillips@burpee.org