Educational Programming
The Bulkley Valley Museum welcomes educators to book guided tours and programs for their classes. Our programming is formatted to meet Curricular Content areas, Big Ideas and Core Competencies across all grade K-12, encompassing Social Studies and other subjects.
Educational programs and tours, as well as visits of our current exhibits must be booked at least 2 days in advance by contacting the Museum at 250-847-5322, or by emailing education@bvmuseum.org. We are not able to accommodate same day requests.
Supervision Expectations
Classes must have adequate supervision. Where classes are split between the art gallery and museum there must be one adult with each group (e.g. educational assistant, parent volunteer, etc., as well as the teacher). These additional adults are expected to provide supervision while the museum staff member presents the program or tour.
Tour and Program Costs
- Educational programs and guided tours of exhibits for school classes led by BV Museum staff are offered by donation. Requested donation is $2/student to a maximum of $40. Classes are asked to make one donation per school year.
- SD54 classes are covered by a district donation agreement and are not individually asked for donations. Invoices can be provided for schools that are not part of SD54.
- School classes may also book a time to view current exhibits without making a donation, under teacher supervision and guidance only (no support from museum staff).
- Guided tours, programs, or supervisory assistance for summer camps, after-school care, daycare, or another instance where a fee has been paid by the participants to the visiting group organizer: Fee of $2/child.
Guided Tours:
As the museum’s space is quite limited we recommend that classes touring current exhibits split into two groups and visit the Smithers Art Gallery at the same time. Please contact education@bvmuseum.org and info@smithersart.org in the same email to book a time to visit both spaces.
Museum Educational Programs:
Programs generally run 40-60 minutes, and can be offered in addition to time spent viewing current exhibits. These programs work best when offered to the full class (no art gallery split).
- Fun with Fossils (Grades K-4): An interactive natural sciences and critical thinking program led by museum staff, designed for Kindergarten to Grade 4. Students will learn about how the region now known as the Bulkley Valley developed over 60 million years and how fossils are formed through hands-on activities and handling real fossils. Classes from Grade 2 to Grade 4 also have an opportunity to make their own fossils.
- Tools and Technology (Grades K-4): An interactive Social Studies program led by museum staff, designed for Kindergarten to Grade 4. Students will learn about historic tools, gadgets, and technology and how they have evolved over time. In this activity, students have an opportunity to look, at, touch, and engage with artifacts from the Bulkley Valley Museum’s collection.
- Building our Main Street (Grades K-4): An interactive Social Studies program designed for Kindergarten to Grade 4. Students will learn about the history and evolution of downtown Smithers through an interactive photo exercise and creating a collaborative 3D model of Main Street. Older students also have the opportunity to share their display with other classes.
- Shared Histories (Grades 8-12): This museum staff-led program compliments our Shared Histories permanent exhibit and can be adapted to suit learning needs and grade levels. Contact our staff to learn more about this program!
- Using Primary Sources (Grades 8-12): This program can be delivered by museum staff at the museum, or in your classroom. Students interact with and analyze a variety of primary sources selected from the museum’s collection. Students will learn the benefits and challenges of different primary source mediums, the importance of context and perspective, and how to identify primary and secondary sources. This program is perfect for classes learning the basics about primary sources, and those about to undertake more complex research projects. This program incorporates the Historical Thinking Concepts.
- Recording Oral History (Grades 10-12): An interactive Social Studies program that introduces students to oral history as a medium for research, tradition, and storytelling. Students will hear examples, learn the basics of conducting interviews, and have the opportunity to record their own. Students will have the option to donate their interviews to the museum’s collections (with parent permission).
Do you want to bring a group to tour the museum, but not do a whole program? Is there a historical topic not listed above you would like your students to learn more about? Please contact to discuss accommodations and other options!
To book our programs contact education@bvmuseum.org or 250-847-5322.
BV Museum Digital Resources for Teachers
Our virtual exhibits include local historic photography, the history of the Spanish Flu outbreak in Smithers, the invention of the egg carton, and a Google Earth tour of historic buildings and landscapes.
The Museum also welcomes teachers to deliver their own lesson plans within the Museum, or to discuss programming ideas with staff. Teachers also have full access to our Collections Online web portal, featuring over 10,000 local historical images, as well as digitized primary source documents and artifact photographs freely available for in-classroom use.
Other Online Educational Resources
Check out the Smithers Regional GeoTour as part of the Below BC Virtual Museum. Mineral samples from the collections of the Smithers Exploration Group and BV Museum were used to create this virtual resource.