skip navigation
Go to the Texas Memorial Museum homepage. Go to The University of Texas at Austin homepage.
Austin's First Science Museum

Support the Museum
 

Loaner Kits

Texas Memorial Museum has a variety of loaner kits available for educators to borrow at no cost.  Educators interested in borrowing a kit must have attended a TMM-sponsored teacher workshop and/or have visited TMM with their students within the last 5 years.  Loans are for a maximum of two weeks, a maximum of two kits per loan.  Borrowers are responsible for the cost of repair or replacement of kit materials damaged or lost during the loan period. A $25 late fee will be charged for loans returned after the scheduled due date.

To borrow a kit:

Contact the Education Department (tmmeducation@austin.utexas.edu) to find out if the kit is available on the dates you request.

Fill out a loan form when you pick up the kit. This confirms that you will be responsible for the kit and its contents.

Return the kit on the due date and complete the loan form letting us know how many students benefited from its use.

Teachers must pick the loaner kits up and drop them off during regular business hours.

Available kits include:

  • Burgess Shale Replicas:
    The collection of scientifically accurate models, based on the half-billion-year-old fossils of the Burgess Shale, includes five organisms that lived on the sea floor: Pikaia gracilens, Laggania cambria, Olenoides serratus, Opabinia regalis, and Wiwaxia corrugate.
  • Carnivoran Skulls:
    Includes dichotomous key and a set of the following skulls: bobcat, coyote, gray fox, striped skunk, ringtail, American badger, mink, American black bear, and northern raccoon.
  • Cat Skeleton:
    Complete disarticulated skeleton of a domestic cat.
  • Chicken Skeleton:
    Complete mounted and articulated skeleton of a chicken.
  • Dinosaur Trackway Mats:
    Reproduction of a Paluxy River dinosaur trackway pattern on a set of yoga mats, approximately 25 feet long and 11 feet wide. Kit includes 4 metric tape measures.
  • DNA-RNA Protein Synthesis Kit:
    Students use plastic, color-coded components to build a DNA molecule, replicate it, and use half of the “ladder” to build messenger RNA. Contains enough materials for 24 students working in pairs.
  • Evolution Timeline Play Mat:
    Illustrated walk-on play mat created by Charlie’s Playhouse.  Mat unfolds to 18 feet in length and includes activities for ages 4-10 years
  • Mammal Scat Casts:
    Replica scat cast from field-collected scat deposited by a bat, bobcat, cottontail rabbit, coyote, gray fox, mouse, Virginia opossum, porcupine, northern raccoon, striped skunk, squirrel and white-tailed deer.
  • Mammal Skins:
    Set of 9 mammal pelts with fur. Kit includes American badger, bobcat, coyote, fox squirrel, gray fox, mink, northern raccoon, striped skunk and Virginia opossum.
  • Mammal Tracking Kit:
    Casts of mammal front and hind feet for tracking activities. Kit includes American badger, bobcat, cottontail rabbit, coyote, feral hog, gray squirrel, mink, nine-banded armadillo, northern raccoon, pocket gopher, porcupine, puma, striped skunk, Virginia opossum and white-tailed deer.
  • Predator Skulls:
    A set of 4 coyote and 4 bobcat skulls for predator “bite” analysis.
  • Primate Phylogeny:
    Cast skull and whole body photograph of each of the following: Lemur, Symphalangus, Saimiri, Lagothrix, Macaca, Pan, Aotus, Papio, Callithrix, Homo. For analysis of primate evolutionary relationships.
  • Sauropod and Theropod Dinosaur Replicas:
    Set of 10 plastic replicas of each, representing Paluxysaurus and Acrocanthosaurus. For use in track-making activities and as models in art projects.
  • Small Mammal Skulls of Texas:
    Students use a dichotomous key to identify the skulls of six small mammals commonly found in Texas. Skulls in the kit include armadillo, bobcat, raccoon, porcupine, coyote and opossum.