Nature Experienceship - Wildflowers with Dr. Leigh Johnson

Everyone was enthusiastic despite the dismal weather as we met with Dr. Leigh Johnson to go looking for wildflowers. After a brief explanation of flower anatomy and plant presses we loaded the vans and departed for Rock Canyon. We found our first wildflowers before we even left the parking lot. They were identified as a “LPFs” or “little purple flowers” which upon closer inspection turned out to be Musk Mustard from the Brassicaceae family. As we started walking down the trail Dr. Johnson was able to tell us lots of interesting things about the plants we saw. Using our hand lenses we were able to count the number of sepals, petals, and stamens. Dr. Johnson brought along some field guides and plant keys to help us learn to identify the plants we found. He also taught us some good characteristics for identifying plant families, such as Brassicaceae (mustards) always have 4 petals in the shape of a cross, and Boraginaceae have a flowering stock that curls up in a scorpoid shape. By the time we circled back to the parking lot we were wet, but everyone agreed that it was worth it!

Melissa, Museum Educator

2009 SUNDANCE EARTH FAIR

On April 11, 2009 Sundance held their annual Earth fair in honor of Earth day the 21st of April. Charlotte and I were in attendance at the fair with a booth promoting the love and appreciation of nature. It was an exciting fair filled with a number of other booths, crafts and performances. While we were there Charlotte and I drank from a keg of root beer, watched little children do the Hoop dance and made a newspaper earth.

Our booth was the best out of them all. We had a couple friends with us to draw people over. He had Rosie our rose-haired tarantula, Cuddles our ball python and our lovely cockroaches. All of our animals were a hit with the visitors but with the cockroaches being the least favorite. Many people, I believe, came over their fear of spiders by letting Rosie walk across their hands.

There were even some visitors all the way from Britain that were very excited to see our animals. These lovely ladies were even kind enough to point out that “musuem” was miss-spelled on our banner. Thank goodness it was not mine or Charlotte’s fault.

All in all, the Earth fair was wonderful except for the weather. What is up with it??

Beka, Museum Educator

Date Night - Dinner and a Movie

Saturday night the Bean Museum hosted another date night. It was a huge success. There is no better way to relax after a long week at school then with good food, good friends and movie. Couples enjoyed each other company while gorging themselves on pizza and pop. After everyone was well fed we headed down to the museum’s auditorium and watched a movie on the big screen. Couples said that they had a great time and can’t wait for another museum date night!

Katie Klaus, Museum Educator

Lichen - Nature Experienceship

We had a great time with Dr. St. Clair on Saturday, March 21, 2009 learning all about lichens. We spent a few minutes in the lichen lab learning about how they are curated and kept in the collection. Everyone in attendance got a hand lens and a copy of Dr. St. Clair's "A Color Guidebook to Common Rocky Mountain Lichens." We then went up to Rock Canyon Park and collected some lichens on bark. We used our new guidebooks to identify the 7-9 species found in one grove of trees. Next we took a short hike up to the mouth of Rock Canyon and looked at some species on rock. It was a lot of fun and very educational.

Katy Knight, Museum Education

February Date Night

This Saturday the Bean Life Science Museum was host to its monthly Date Night. For those not familiar with the program, the museum hosts this monthly event on the last Saturday of each month. This month the event theme was an African “Photo Safari.”

Guests took a tour of featured African animals, with the museum dark, traveling in a “jeep”, made out of a box, using their flashlight headlights as their only source of light. As they traveled around the museum, the guests took pictures with the animals, interacting with them.

For example the picture with Shasta, the liger, told the guests that Shasta’s father was a lion, making her half African, and that the guests should take a picture showing half of their bodies, as well as half of Shasta. These humorous photos were then compiled and viewed as the guests shared refreshments.

March’s Date Night theme is a “Dinner and a Movie.” Guests will enjoy a movie in the museum’s auditorium, and share a pizza dinner. This event will take place on Saturday the 28th, and will begin at 7:30 and costs $15 for each couple.

Kolby Reddish, Museum Educator

Bald Eagle Day

Mr. Merrill Webb took a group of bird watchers to Farmington Bay in February to look at the Bald Eagles that migrate through Utah every year. Eighteen people signed up to join us. At 8 in the morning we drove two large buses to the reserve at Farmington Bay where many of the Eagles were nesting. The group saw about 40 different bald eagles. Most of the eagles were sitting out on the ice. We weren’t able to get very close to the birds, but Mr. Webb and the museum each brought high powered spotting scopes for everyone to look through. With these scopes you could see right up to the eagles. The museum also provided binoculars. There were lots of birds to see: black and white adult bald eagles, brown juvenile bald eagles, magpies, red winged black birds, geese, and even a swan.

Here are some pictures from the event:

Megan Monn Fuller, Museum Educator

Date Night

One thing I love about the museum is that it's always trying new things. This semester it's "date nights". As an employee of the museum, I was present on the night of our scavenger hunt in the dark. It was wonderful. We had a heck of a time making the place dark (not as easy as flipping a switch, unfortunately). It was worth it though. Couples with flashlights scurried back and forth, up and down stairs, searching for animals and new clues that would lead them to the next one. And these weren't just college students either. Older couples had as much (if not more) fun as the younger ones. We even brought out some live animals at the end for anyone who was interested (which of course was everyone). So all in all, the first date night was a success, and we will have many more in the future I'm sure. But if you're interested in coming to one, you'd better put your name on the list early because people were signing up on the spot to come to the next one. They won't be disappointed.

Matt Meese, Museum Educator