Science & Discovery

Experience the many ways UW–Madison enhances our world through the power of discovery.

Geology Museum
At the Geology Museum, you can touch rocks from a time when there were volcanoes in Wisconsin, see sea creatures that used to live and swim where we now walk, and stand beneath the tusks of a mastodon. Find it inside Weeks Hall.

Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery
The Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery houses the private Morgridge Institute for Research and the public Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. The state-of-the-art facility also features a public Town Center, including two unique dining venues: a café and a restaurant with a full-service menu.

Space Place
Stargazing, presentations, special events and science activities are featured at Space Place. Located off campus at 2300 S. Park St., it’s a vibrant public education center with loads of hands-on activities.

Physics Museum
The Physics Museum inside Chamberlin Hall will engage your inner scientist.

Babcock Hall Dairy Store
The Babcock Hall Dairy Store offers a variety of packaged dairy products made in the Babcock Hall Dairy Plant including a beloved campus hallmark – Babcock ice cream, cheese and milk. Dairy store visitors may also visit an observation gallery on the second floor overlooking the dairy plant.

Dairy Cattle Center
It is no small secret that dairy is a huge part of what makes Wisconsin special. Tours of the Dairy Cattle Center are available by appointment.

Wisconsin Insect Research Collection
The Insect Research Displays include enormous African beetles, brilliant butterflies and the creepy crawly. Find them inside Russell Laboratories.

Wisconsin State Herbarium
The Wisconsin State Herbarium contains 1 million specimens of dried and labeled plants of state, national, and international importance. Find it in Birge Hall.

Washburn Observatory
Historic Washburn Observatory offers free public observations on the first and third Wednesday of each month and every Wednesday between June and August, weather permitting. Visit the website for the latest scheduling updates.

Biotechnology Center
The Biotechnology Center provides hands-on field trips and tours to school and civic groups of all ages. BioTrek also offers customized “X Marks the Spot” campus tours of sites of history-making discoveries in the life sciences. Advanced reservations required.

Wisconsin National Primate Research Center
The Wisconsin National Primate Research Center welcomes visitors to its Marmoset Learning Lobby from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. week- days by appointment.

Stem Cell Learning Lab
The Stem Cell Learning Lab is a hands-on field-trip experience for youth or adults offered by appointment at the Biotech Center in partnership the Primate Center and the Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine Center.

Wisconsin Energy Institute
The Wisconsin Energy Institute is a center- piece of future renewable energy systems research at UW–Madison and has been awarded with a LEED Gold Certification. Walk through the adaptable “plug and play” laboratories, high-bay laboratory, and education gardens. Tours are available by appointment.

Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery
Photograph of Dairy Cows
Photograph of an insect in an observers hand
Photograph of the Washburn Observatory telescope