What's New in School Programs

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition is back! 

Each year, ROM hosts a stunning and awe-inspiring exhibition of winning photos from the Natural History Museum, London's Wildlife Photographer of the Year annual competition. These photos document incredible, surprising, and moving details of the natural world, and remind us of the responsibility we hold toward caring for our shared planet. This year’s exhibition in Toronto highlights five Indigenous artists who share stories connected to selected photographs in their Indigenous languages, providing a unique opportunity to experience Indigenous perspectives, languages, and storytelling traditions.

Bring your students to experience this stunning exhibition as a Guided Lesson with an Indigenous Museum Educator, or choose a Self-Guided Visit.

Support either type of visit with the downloadable Wildlife Photographer of the Year Gallery Trail. Deepen your students’ learning about the art of photography and how pictures can tell a compelling story. Students can even gain valuable photography tips if they want to submit their own nature photographs to the ROM Wildlife Photography contest.

Learn more about these options and how to book by clicking the images below.

Each month brings new featured virtual lessons that let you beam Museum Educators and Indigenous Museum Educators directly into your classroom.

Virtual lessons combine virtual galleries, close-up camera views of real objects, specimens and belongings, memorable stories, special guests, and audience participation to create engaging experiences your students will remember all year long.

Virtual lessons are free with registration.

Before birds, there were Raptors.

Raptor dinosaurs have long captured our imagination, from their blockbuster fame in the hit film Jurassic Park, to inspiring our hometown basketball franchise, to must-see museum specimens in ROM’s own James & Louise Temerty Gallery of the Age of Dinosaurs. But there’s so much more to these incredible fossil animals than their fame and popularity, they have fundamentally reshaped our scientific understanding of dinosaur biology, behaviour, and evolution. 

Raptors occupy a unique and important place in the dinosaur family tree as the group most closely related to living birds. As such, they show a mix of features that link dinosaurs and birds in a thought-provoking way. In a fascinating example of evolution repeating itself, modern birds of prey, such as hawks and eagles, have independently evolved some of the same features found in raptor dinosaurs, including specialized feet with an enlarged claw and hunting strategies. 

This ROM-original exhibition, presented by Desjardins Financial Group, brings these prehistoric icons to life through stunning casts, real fossils, hands-on activities, and a large-scale immersive experience where you can step into the Hell Creek forest ecosystem and experience life with a group of Acheroraptor. This is a rare opportunity to experience one of Earth’s most legendary dinosaur species and uncover their lasting connection to the birds we know today. Self-guided visits are now available to book, and you can support the learning with the Raptors Gallery Trail.

This exhibition is an additional $2.50 per student

Curriculum Connections:

• Elementary: Science, Social Studies, The Arts
• Middle:  Science, History, The Arts
• Secondary: Science, Environmental Studies, The Arts