Discovery Boxes
The Virginia Living Museum’s Discovery Boxes are “museum-in-a-trunk” traveling curriculum modules that teachers use in their own classrooms. They are designed to stimulate critical thinking and educate through excitement by involving students in active, hands-on learning. The wide variety of objects and resources make Discovery Boxes effective learning tools for any grade level and allows teachers to customize these materials to fit their curriculum and SOL requirements.
Each topic is developed thematically and contains natural history specimens and artifacts from the Museum’s collections for hands-on use by students, as well as activities, student and teacher resource information, and much more. A teacher resource packet in each box provides background information on each specimen and suggested activities for implementation into the curriculum.
Rental Fee
Fee: $150 per week ($100 for the next consecutive week); Travel fee required for rentals outside the Tidewater region
For more information or to make a reservation, call the Reservations office at 757-534-7410 Monday-Friday, 9am – 4:30pm, email your request to Reservations or complete our online request form.
Funded in part by Newport News Shipbuilding.
Choose from nine exciting topics
Amazing Astronomy
Real meteorites, tektite, earth rocks, and minerals identical to those found on the Moon and Mars, spectrometers, lenses, mirrors, a Rive Ray box, AV materials, posters, scale model of the solar system, distance to the nearest star tape, comet balls, children’s books, reference materials, activity guides, resource information and more.
Be a Tree
Collections of leaves, wood, seeds and flowers; real taxidermied mounts of bat, bird, insects and other tree-associated animals; tree products, bark rubbings and petrified wood; puppets, AV materials, children’s books, reference materials, activity guides and more.
Digging Dinosaurs
Real dinosaur bones, teeth and other fossils; Casts of dinosaur skin, eggs and skulls; dinosaur hatchling sculpture, scale models and puppets; AV materials, posters, children’s books, reference materials, activity guides and more!
Incredible Insects
Insect mounts, collections, eggs and architecture; fossil insects and scale models, insect products, beekeeper hat and gloves and insect eye viewer; student microscope, AV materials, children’s books, reference materials, activity guides and more!
Natural History of Early Virginia
Natural items used by Virginia’s Native Americans and Jamestown settlers for survival, trade, food, jewelry, music and toys. Includes puppets, corn grinding mortar and pestle with corn to grind, artifacts, animal furs, bone/antler tools, feathers, jewelry, Native American crafts, skulls with skull key, AV materials, children’s books, reference materials, activity guides, resource information and more.
Shark Secrets
Real shark jaws, shark vertebrae, shark skin and fossil shark teeth; shark embryo and eggs, shark products, stingray mount, posters, puppets, student microscope, AV materials, children’s books, reference materials, activity guides and more!
Snakes Alive
Real snake skeleton, skull, taxidermied mount; collection of reptiles and amphibians, snake eggs, embryos, fossils and skins, reptile products, puppets and posters; AV materials, children’s books, reference materials, activity guides and more!
Tropical Rainforest
Museum specimens of insects, crystals, leaves and piranha; skins and feathers of endangered tropical bird species, rainforest products, scale models and puppets; posters, AV materials, children’s books, reference materials, activity guides and more!
Under the Bay
Museum mounts of fish, squid, skate, and algae; collections of shells, crabs, corals, and sea stars; scale models, posters, puppets; children’s books, reference materials, and activity guides; student microscope, AV materials and more!