What's New in School Programs

Celebrate and honour Indigenous History Month with ROM this June. The diverse selection of onsite lessons, virtual visits, and museum activations offered by the Indigenous Learning and Programs Team offer flexible choices for visiting schools and families.

Indigenous Peoples' Day at ROM

June 21, 2026 - All day, throughout the Museum, all ages welcome.

Celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day with performances, talks, and hands-on activities throughout the Museum. From performances in Currelly Gallery to Storytimes in Earth Rangers Studio to activations in First Peoples Gallery, learners of all ages will engage with Indigenous Arts, Culture and teachings. 

Check back often for updates and details.

Explore additional lessons and programs by clicking on the images below.

The University of Toronto will be installing overhead scaffolding near the President’s Choice School Entrance at ROM starting this week. Access to the School Entrance will remain open, and all school visits will continue as usual.

You may notice construction equipment and some noise during weekday morning hours. Directional signage will be in place to guide your group safely to the entrance.

ROM School Entrance Organizers will be on hand to assist, and we will send updates with any significant changes.

Click on the button at left for maps and additional School Visit information..

The lake has intrigued scientists for decades, and research on sediments at the bottom of the lake has identified it as having the best record of humanity's impact on the planet. This led to the lake's selection as the "golden spike" (definitive marker showing where one epoch ends and another begins) candidate for a proposed new epoch on the geologic time scale - the Anthropocene.

Learn about the effects on the land and waters when Indigenous communities started growing food in the 13th Century, the impacts of 19th Century European settlement, the nuclear age, and more. Through the study of the lake's unique varved sediments - thin, alternating layers of calcite and organic sediment marking each year - similar to tree rings - scientists have been able to chronicle nearly a thousand years of human-caused and natural environmental changes up to the present day

Showcasing Indigenous belongings and settler objects, examples of local and introduced plants, historical documentation, related artworks, core samples, and more, Crawford Lake: Layers in Time offers an engaging, compelling look at the record of human life on Earth. The exhibition illustrates how everything from early agriculture to modern nuclear weapons testing has left its mark on this unassuming Canadian lake - and on the Earth at large - encouraging us to consider what record our activities and the decisions we make today will be left behind for future generations to uncover.

This exhibition is free with general admission.

Curriculum Connections:

• Elementary:  Mathematics, Language, Science
• Middle:  Geography, Mathematics, Science
• Secondary:  Mathematics, Geography, First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Studiese

Visit the Gallery Trail page to view expanded Curriculum Connections.

The James and Louise Temerty Galleries of the Age of Dinosaurs – newly expanded by 3,500 square feet – and the Reed Gallery of the Age of Mammals reopened to the public on December 5, 2025, featuring new displays including the permanent return of Zuul crurivastator, one of the best-preserved large dinosaurs ever found.

With its gnarly face resembling the namesake fictional monster from the 1984 film Ghostbusters, Zuul is one of the most complete specimens of its kind found anywhere in the world. Its full skull and tail club, as well as preserved skin and other soft tissues, provide exciting new opportunities for cutting-edge scientific research. It has since become a visitor favourite and will now be part of a new permanent display that showcases this incredible 76-million-year-old fossil specimen – along with the imagined battle scene featuring full-sized casts of the plant-eating ankylosaur Zuul crurivastator fending off the rapacious flesh-eating tyrannosaurid theropod Gorgosaurus libratus. Visitors will also get a chance to see the real skulls of Zuul and Gorgosaurus together in their own display case.

Also on permanent display in the renovated gallery is the huge cast skull of Daspletosaurus (a close cousin of T. rex), based on a fossil uncovered in Alberta by ROM paleontologists between 2015 and 2022. Joining them are some other familiar faces – including the group of raptors and horned dinosaurs such as Wendiceratops. 

The update includes a reorganization of the Jurassic marine world section of ROM’s world-renowned ichthyosaur collection, including the huge Eurhinosaurus, along with a Macrospondylus crocodile and invertebrates such as ammonites and crinoids.

This exhibition is free with general admission.

Curriculum Connections:

• Elementary:  Science, Life Systems, Earth Sciences
• Middle:  Science, Life Systems, Earth Sciences
• Secondary:  Science, Biology, Environmental Sciences, Earth Sciences

Visit the Gallery Trail page to view expanded Curriculum Connections.