Spring has officially sprung and all kinds of wildlife are emerging from winter dormancy – including some plants that release allergy-inducing pollen. This month, get in the know about that pesky pollen by helping scientists monitor the timing, length, and severity of pollen season. Then, keep your scientific contributions rolling by participating in a global bioblitz – a community effort to identify and count plants in animals in your area. This Earth day, get out there and enjoy the changing season – but remember to pack tissues!

Enjoy the museum from wherever you are! Museum@Home Family Edition is issued on the first Wednesday of the month. The Adult Edition is issued on the third Wednesday. Your donations keep the content coming!

Donate today

You do the research!: Community Science

Help scientists with their research projects.

Pollen Tracker

Audience: Children and Family
Grades: K-12
Duration: Variable

Experts say this spring is going to be bad for allergies. But, what tools and information do scientists use to make these predictions, and how can you help? Join doctoral candidate Yi Liu and professor Kai Zhu from the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability, creators of Pollen Trackers, to find out. Learn how to identify common pollen-producing plants and trees, then track and report their phenophases – when they’re budding, flowering, and releasing pollen. Your contributions will help scientists improve models that forecast the allergy season’s timing and severity, helping some 60 million U.S. allergy sufferers know when to stay indoors.

You do the Research!: Community Science

Help scientists with their research projects.

City Nature Challenge

Audience: Children and Family
Grades: K-12
Duration: Friday, April 28–Sunday, May 7, 2023

April is Community Science month, and what better way to celebrate than to participate in the world’s biggest bioblitz, the City Nature Challenge! Organized by the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the City Nature Challenge is a four-day event where communities around the world race to find and document nature in their area. Participants learn about new plants and animals and their observations provide data that scientists around the world can access for their research.

The City Nature Challenge happens in two parts. From Friday, April 28 through Monday, May 1, take pictures of wild plants and animals using the iNaturalist app. From Tuesday, May 2 through Friday, May 7, log into iNaturalist to help identify what was found!

Check out Museum@Home online for more science fun!

UMMNH at Earth Fest 2023: People, Plants, Power, Planet!

Saturday, April 29, 2023
1:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. 
Bailey Park NDC Hub
2617 Joseph Campau
Detroit, MI 48207

Join UMMNH and our community partners in Detroit at Earth Fest 2023: People, Plants, Power, Planet! Organized by the Bailey Park Neighborhood Development Corporation, this local festival kicks off with a community clean-up in the McDougall-Hunt neighborhood followed by activities at the Bailey Park NDC Hub.

Planetarium & Dome Theater

April 2023
Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays

11:30 a.m.  Did An Asteroid Really Kill The Dinosaurs?
12:30 p.m.  Sky Tonight
 1:30 p.m.   Living in Balance
 2:30 p.m.   Sky Tonight

Planetarium & Dome Theater Shows

Tickets: $8 adults, seniors, and children ages 3 & up. Babies without tickets may be required to sit on an adult's lap. Tickets are available the day of the show. Schedule subject to change.