Welcome to Living Laboratory!
Be part of science as it happens
Living Laboratory® is a unique, educational on-site research program that brings together scientists, Museum educators, and visitors. Living Laboratory visitors can learn about science through active participation, just as they do at the hands-on activities throughout the Museum. Participation in these activities comes with the added bonus of actually helping researchers advance science.
Living Laboratory research partners are trained by Museum educators to talk with visitors about the scientific process, as well as their own specific way of studying how people function. Visitors can get answers to their questions about science directly from the source.
Discovery Center
Designed for children from birth to age eight and their accompanying grownups, the Discovery Center offers an assortment of fun, hands-on activities that are designed to encourage discovery through play. An ideal area for early learners, this educational environment emphasizes the use of real objects with an extensive teaching collection for exploring natural history, physical science, and engineering topics. Scientists working with Living Laboratory in the Discovery Center are exploring questions about children’s cognitive development. Learn more about how your child learns and grows by talking with real scientists and seeing how they do their research.
Hall of Human Life
The Hall of Human Life is a permanent biology exhibition that invites visitors to explore the science behind who we are today. The space is arranged to help visitors understand the environmental forces that work with our genes to make us who we are. Here, you can see how five different environments - Communities, Time, Organisms, Food, and Physical Forces – impact you personally by collecting data at our Link Stations and comparing it to data from other Museum visitors. Living Laboratory in the Hall of Human Life allows you to take this process a step further by providing your data to an experiment currently underway. Learn about how scientists investigate a wide array of topics related to human biology and health and help advance these fields through your participation.
