Student Activity Guides

Printable material for Bullock Museum films and exhibitions

Explore materials that will encourage conversation and help your students discover history, science, and culture.

We suggest selecting one or more Activity Guides for museum exhibitions that you would like to use with your students on a field trip, then print them, and distribute them amongst chaperones and students. Please plan to bring clipboards or notebooks to use as a writing surface.

Not sure which one might be best for your group's field trip length and content focus? Want to use them on the visit, but are unable to print them in advance? Contact Reservations@TheStoryofTexas.com for assistance.

Activity Guides for All Grade Levels

Activity Guides help students focus on specific topics and skills during their Museum visit.

Bring the Bullock Museum into your classroom.
Bring the Bullock Museum into your classroom.

Making a Living Activity Guide

What jobs have Texans done over time, and how has the state’s geography influenced which industries grew here? How have trade and new industries shaped the economy of Texas? Find out by using the Making a Living Activity Guide. Explore the Texas History Galleries, looking closely at the artifacts and following the guide as it leads your students through six activities in the Museum.

Artifact Adventure

Send your students on an adventure to find an artifact in the Museum, and learn how to analyze it like a historian.

Hands-on activities for your students.
Hands-on activities for your students.

Find and Sketch

As they visit the Museum galleries, your students become artists by sketching artifacts that represent thematic topics. Later, enjoy using their sketches in various ways in your classroom.

Museum Rotunda Mosaic Search

Head up the Grand Staircase to the third floor Rotunda, and look down. Using the Mosaic in the Rotunda floor, students will explore the history of Texas and learn the importance of a detailed examination of artifacts.

Bobstagram Photo Scavenger Hunt

Have your students become keen observers as they take on this Bobstagram Photo Scavenger Hunt. Using cameras, students will find artifacts that represent the concepts in the activity.

Activity Guides for Special Exhibitions

Special temporary exhibitions at the Bullock Museum bring in different topics and disciplines for your students to explore.

To enhance your field trips, use these downloads to accompany exhibitions currently on view with activities in the classroom before or after your trip to the Museum.

Sharks

Come face to face with Sharks, the ocean's most magnificent and misunderstood species. Sharks brings to life the incredible diversity of sharks with dozens of life-sized models, ranging from 33 feet to 5 inches long, and offers visitors a unique look at prehistoric and modern species, their habitats and hunting styles, and the conservation threats these spectacular animals face today. The evolutionary history of sharks is extraordinarily long, predating even dinosaurs. “We hope people walk away from this exciting exhibition with a new appreciation for sharks and understand they are magnificent creatures that should be revered, not feared,” says John Sparks, curator in the Department of Ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History and curator of Sharks. The exhibition will showcase current research, replica fossils from the American Museum of Natural History's extensive collections, and a spectacular “parade” of sharks highlighting ancient and modern shark species.

Activity Guides for Films

Both the Texas Spirit Theater, a multi-sensory experience, and the IMAX® Theatre offer a memorable and fun way to understand history, science, and culture.

Want to enrich your students' experience in the theater? Use these downloads to accompany films currently on view with activities in the classroom before or after your trip to the Museum.

Serengeti

The Serengeti is known for one of nature’s most spectacular events — the annual migration of more than one million wildebeest, followed by an array of other iconic African animals. Experience it through the eyes of the youngest members of the animal cast as they embark on their life’s journeys.

Secrets of the Sea

Prepare to meet some of the ocean’s strangest and most spectacular creatures. From adorable pygmy seahorses and opalescent squid to manta rays, tiger sharks, barnacle blennies, a coconut octopus, and much more, Secrets of the Sea takes you face-to-face with an astonishing array of marine critters and shows the fascinating ways they interact with each other and their environment. Many marine animals depend on one another for survival, and Secrets of the Sea demonstrates the critical importance of marine biodiversity to keeping our oceans healthy. Dive in and experience this extraordinary underwater world!

Fungi: The Web of Life

Much of life on Earth is connected by a vast, hidden network that we are only just beginning to understand. Out of sight, between the world of plants and animals, another world exists—the kingdom of fungi. ​​For learners and adventurers of all ages, Fungi invites you to experience a whole new side of nature and gain a richer understanding of the need for its stewardship. A rich tapestry of cinematography, music and science, the film explores these miraculous organisms, their connections to the rest of life on land, and the promises they hold for humanity’s future.

Deep Sky

Deep Sky goes behind the scenes of the James Webb Telescope, capturing its launch and the release of the mindblowing first full-color images seen by billions around the world. The film is a thrilling story that begins during the telescope’s construction, following it to the harrowing launch stage, and through the release of the first full-color images to the public on July 12, 2022 and beyond.

School Field Trips presented by The John M. O'Quinn Foundation.

School Programs are generously funded by Featured sponsor The Marie M. and James H. Galloway Foundation, Supporting sponsor The Lange Family Foundation, and Contributing sponsors Bella and Chase Cooley, Dian Graves Owen Foundation, The Honorable Kent R. Hance, and Roger and Marianne Staubach.

The Bullock Museum, a division of the Texas State Preservation Board, is funded by Museum members, donors, and patrons, the Texas State History Museum Foundation, and the State of Texas.