Sensory Friendly At-Home Learning!

As we adapt our educational programming to accommodate at-home teachers and learners, we maintain our commitment to accessibility and inclusion in STEM education. While we cannot hold our regular monthly Sensory Friendly Time at the museum, we wanted you to let you know of some ways we can support children with sensory-processing difficulties, anxiety, autism spectrum disorder, or who require other learning accommodations in their STEM journeys.

STEM Sensory Bins

We at the MOST love sensory bins, and if you can’t visit ours in the Earth Science Cave or STEM Story Time Room, you can easily create one at home! We’ve gathered our suggestions for creating a hands-on STEM Sensory Bin, and we’ll continue to add more as we develop them.

STEM Sensory Bin

Sensory Friendly At-Home Activities

On our growing list of At-Home Learning Resources (updated daily!), we recommend activities with a Sensory-Friendly [SF] tag.

This indicates activities that:
• Do not involve loud noises or bright lights
• Are not timed or can be paused and started up again later
• Focus on single-sensory experiences (e.g. touch/feel only, watch/see only)
• May provide a consistent structure over multiple hours/days (e.g. daily seed germination check-ins at 10 AM)

You can also check out our Sensory Friendly Time page.

At-Home Resources

Student Science Hotline

Need homework help? Have a burning STEM question? Come up with a great idea for an invention? Tell us about it!Educators at the MOST will read your question and email a reply within 48 business hours.The new Student Science Hotline is free and open to all ages.

Please note: the Student Science Hotline provides encouragement, guidance, and basic science information — not homework answers or formal tutoring. If your student is struggling with science, technology, math, or engineering content, their teachers and school administrators are still your best resource.

Student Science Hotline

And remember! For young children, STEM learning doesn't have to mean rocket science - it's about fostering their natural scientific thinking. Ask questions before, during, and after the activities about what they think will happen, what they notice/observe, and what they learned. Encouraging discovery and curiosity are fundamental to the learning process!

These "virtual program" services are all free of cost - but donations are welcome as our "real programs" are closed until further notice.

To make a donation in any amount, please visit below. Thank you!

Donate Here