Archive 2019 February

Archive Monthly Meeting February 2019

"Lots of Legs in the Classroom": A look at Insects, Arachnids & Myriapods used in Education classes and Public Programing at the American Museum of Natural History.

Speakers: Bilexis Casado, Jacqueline Horgan, Safiya Sabir (Science & Nature Program, Children and Family Learning), Rachael Joakim (PhD Candidate RGGS & CUNY), Agnieszka Pierwola (Teaching Volunteers, Museum Learning Experience), Jay Holmes (Urban Advantage Program), Alex Garretson (Animal Husbandry Specialist), Louis Sorkin (Division of Invertebrate Zoology).

We will have both living and preserved specimens to see plus some microscopes for viewing.

The Science and Nature Program has always relied insects to foster a love and respect for nature with the families we serve. We will share the important role insects play in our early childhood curriculum and how we support our partner educators with relevant content and accessibility to resources.

Rachael designed her own after-school program through Bread and Yoga in Inwood, where children hone their critical thinking skills through hands-on experiences with nature. She has been working with children her whole life and has found live animals to be the most effective learning tool for so many things. Children have a natural curiosity and inclination towards invertebrates. She will be discussing her methods and reasons for why we should be incorporating more live animals in science education.

The Museum Learning Experiences group works mainly with teachers and school groups during daily and monthly events at the museum. We often include live, pinned and fossil insects in our events for school groups. We like to encourage teachers to bring insects into their classrooms. We will share some photos from these museum events and classrooms as well as some of the material we teach with.

The Urban Advantage program supports participating New York City public middle schools in a variety of ways, including supporting Family Science Nights at the schools. We venture to all five boroughs, usually on mass transit so we have developed a fairly portable insect focused “Observation Station”. We will share some of our specimen prep/mounting strategies, equipment used and supporting documents.

Many arthropod species are reared in the Education Department and the Division of Invertebrate Zoology. We’ll see an overview of the live collection, how arthropods are used in the Discovery Room, and list some of the easiest classroom arthropods to keep and care for. Specimens are often shared between departments. There will be discussions on arthropod rearing, housing, feeding and upkeep with some videos of arthropod behavior.

Where: Linder Theater, AMNH (West 77th Entrance)

Date: Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Time: 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM

Dinner: Senn Thai Comfort Food, 452 Amsterdam Avenue, 9:00PM

Society meetings are always open to the public with no admission charge.

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