Group Tours | School Visits | Workshops

Tour Disclaimers

• Due to staffing limits, we will be accepting requests for Summer 2025 and Autumn 2025 only. 

Group Tours

We do our best to accommodate those who are interested in touring the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, whether it is for an intense scientific inquiry or simply to see what type of research goes on at the Center. Tours are appropriate for youth in at least fourth grade and should be requested at least one and a half months in advance. Once the request is submitted, a team will review it during a weekly planning meeting and reply in approximately one week. 

• Due to staffing limits, groups tours will incur a fee for groups outside of The Ohio State University starting Autumn 2024. A fee schedule is provided below. Depending on current projects of the Byrd Center and donations, discounts might be available to schools and youth groups that would otherwise not be able to afford our programs. These discounts will be shared once your request has been reviewed.
• To find out if we can accommodate your group, please complete the request form.
• To find out about other research centers you can tour on Ohio State's Columbus campus, visit go.osu.edu/stemvisit.

Tour Details

• Tours for up to 40 people can be arranged according to the interests and backgrounds of your group.
• For larger groups, please arrange an additional tour at another location to allow for us to split your group in half and have a rotation. Thank you.
• A tour of Byrd Center allows your group to see the different facilities and to hear directly from some of the scientists who work at the center. They will give you background information on their area of expertise and explain some of the science behind their research.
• Typically, large groups are divided into 2 or 3 smaller groups, and a plan is devised to enable all members of the group to visit each session.
• We will structure the tour to address your group's needs. The time spent at the Byrd Center is usually two hours or less.
• Due to ongoing maintenance, groups larger than 8 people will not be able to visit the freezer until further notice. The ice core freezer may be closed to any tour group on a case-by-case basis at the discretion of the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center. Tours will still see the Class 100 Clean Laboratory and the Polar Rock Repository, and can see the freezer through a window. In the event of a closure, groups are invited to explore the freezer in a virtual setting, create classroom ice cores, or learn more about ice core research. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Fee Schedule

Visits by Byrd Center Researchers and Students

You may also want to consider having someone from the Byrd Center visit your classroom or group. Center researchers and students often make presentations outside our facility to groups of all ages.

• To find out if we can accommodate your group, please complete the request form.

Visit Details

• Requests should be submitted at least one month in advance.
• We cannot guarantee a visit, but we do our best to accommodate all groups.
• There are limits to how far we can travel, but in these cases, we work to arrange a presentation remotely over Skype or Zoom.
• We do our best to send a speaker appropriate for the interests of your group.

En-ROADS Climate Workshop

Request to have someone from the Byrd Center facilitate a one-hour online workshop using the En-ROADS climate solutions simulator developed by Climate Interactive.

• To find out if we can accommodate your group, please complete the request form.

Workshop Details

The 1-hour workshop and allows participants to explore possible climate change solutions including

• carbon pricing and taxes
• deforestation/afforestation efforts
• energy efficiency, and more.

Request Form