There are many ways to be involved with the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum & Art Gallery! We appreciate all of the donors, volunteers, and students who keep our doors open and support our scientific and educational mission.
The Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum & Art Gallery is one of the primary platforms for outreach and K-12 education within the College. Every year, we host dozens of K-12 visits from regional school districts and work closely with educators to engage students in the Earth and Mineral sciences. If you would like to arrange a class or group visit, please contact museum@ems.psu.edu.
We also facilitate outreach efforts of the student-led Museum Advisory Network for Learning Engagement (MANTLE). This active group of engaged students comes from a variety of disciplines to organize and implement outreach and professional development events.
Every semester, we host student interns in our collections. Intern projects are tailored to the skills and knowledge that a student hopes to gain over the course of a semester.
The Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum & Art Gallery curates almost 20,000 objects related to the history of EMS research at Penn State University. These collections include earth materials, scientific instrumentation, and an extensive collection of fine art with industrial themes. We also house materials that are important to the industrial and geological history of the state. These collections are used to drive research, to train future scientist in the EMS disciplines, and to communicate our science to visitors.
Our Mission
The mission of the Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum & Art Gallery is to serve the college, University, and broader community as an informed educational and technical resource for science, art, and history of the earth and mineral sciences through the preservation, utilization, and promotion of our diverse collections.
The mission of the Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum & Art Gallery is to serve the college, University, and broader community as an informed educational and technical resource for science, art, and history of the earth and mineral sciences through the preservation, utilization, and promotion of our diverse collections.
The Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum & Art Gallery is unique. We draw upon our diverse collections of earth materials, scientific instruments and tools, and industrial art to create exhibits highlighting the history of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and extractive industries of Pennsylvania. Our exhibition gallery includes displays of fluorescent minerals, flexible sandstone, fossils of every sort, sculptures, paintings, meteorites, meteor-wrongs, mine safety lamps, cartographic tools, and a historic geological relief map of Pennsylvania (among other things). We use our collections to help us fulfill our mission of serving the college, university, and broader community as an informed educational and technical resource for science, art, and history of the earth and mineral sciences.