- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
When the 11th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day takes place Sunday, March 6, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the UC Davis Conference Center, 550 Alumni Lane, the attendance focus will be on the UC Davis community, specifically the undergraduate students.
It's a free, science-focused event that in years past, drew thousands of science fans from Yolo and surrounding counties. "This year we're focusing on undergraduate attendance," said coordinator Tabatha Yang, the education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum of Entomology. "The undergrads haven't been able to experience campus life much, due to COVID pandemic policies."
COVID pandemic precautions kept the 2021 event virtual but this year it will be in person, but COVID campus safety policies will be implemented.
In the past, participants enjoyed visiting these collections in person:
- Anthropology Museum
- Arboretum and Public Garden
- Bohart Museum of Entomology
- Botanical Conservatory
- California Raptor Center
- Center for Plant Diversity
- Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven
- Nematode Collection
- Marine Invertebrate Collection
- Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology
- Paleontology Collection
- Phaff Yeast Culture Collection
- Viticulture and Enology Collection
The committee is working out the details at its weekly Zoom meetings. For up-to-date information, visit the the UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day and follow on Twitter and Facebook.
And the thousands of other science fans eager to head over to UC Davis? The 108th annual UC Davis Picnic Day awaits, and the same museums for Biodiversity Museum Day are among those slated to participate. The campuswide Picnic Day, on hold for the last two years due to the COVID pandemic, is scheduled for Saturday, April 23. The theme? "Discovering Tomorrow."
But on Sunday, March 6, the undergraduate students and others in UC Davis community will be discovering or learning more about science.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day is planned for Sunday, March 6, 2022. This is the 11th year of this free, science-focused event. It was initially scheduled for Feb 20, but was changed due to concerns about the Omicron COVID-19 surge and making the event accessible to undergraduates.
It will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the UC Davis Conference Center, 550 Alumni Lane, with special access "field trips" to places like the Department of Entomology and Nematology's Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a half-acre bee garden on Bee Biology Road.
COVID-19 pandemic precautions kept the 2021 event virtual (traditionally it's scheduled for Presidents' Day Weekend) but in 2022 it will be in person. And, of course, state, county and university safety guidelines will be closely followed. "Currently those are UC Davis-symptom survey approval, masks, and either a vaccine card or a negative test from the prior 72 hours," says coordinator Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum of Entomology. "We will have people checking at the front doors. UC Davis requires a safety plan for an indoor event for over 100 people and so we are developing that and will be working with event conference center staff to ensure we are following all the guidelines. We are excited to try in person this year after our 100 percent virtual event last year, but we want to be smart and safe about it for us as well as for visitors."
In the past, participants enjoyed visiting these collections in person:
- Anthropology Museum
- Arboretum and Public Garden
- Bohart Museum of Entomology
- Botanical Conservatory
- California Raptor Center
- Center for Plant Diversity
- Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven
- Nematode Collection
- Marine Invertebrate Collection
- Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology
- Paleontology Collection
- Phaff Yeast Culture Collection
- Viticulture and Enology Collection
Stay tuned for which collections will be featured at the 2022 event in the UC Davis Conference Center, and what special- access field trips are planned. The committee is working out the details at its Zoom meetings. For up-to-date information, visit the the UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day and follow on Twitter and Facebook.
Just be sure to clear your calendar for Sunday, March 6, 2022. The 11th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day is happening.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Think birds and bats, honey bees and hornets, butterflies and beetles, and the flowers they pollinate.
Think yeast cultures and cougars, and nematodes and nightingales, and lions and ladybugs.
Think bears and begonias, eels and egrets, and opossums and orangutans.
We're delighted to see the Crowdfund UC Davis hosting such programs as UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day (Month), the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven and the California Master Beekeeper Program to help them raise much needed funds.
Science matters. It always has. It always will. It amounts to who we were, who we are, and who we want to be in the world we want to live in.
The Crowdfund UC Davis project is described as "where alumni, students, parents and friends can make donations to support innovative projects that propel student engagement, new research discoveries, and efforts to expand UC Davis impact on California and the world."
These crowdfunding programs will continue through the month of February. Folks are asked to give a $5, $10, $20, or more.
Capsule information from the sites:
Project coordinators are Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum of Entomology; Kyria Boundy-Mills, curator of the Phaff Yeast Culture Collectionand Rachel Alsheikh, a junior specialist and curatorial assistant at the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology
In its 10th year, UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day remains a free, annual, educational event for the community. Each year thousands of visitors stroll the campus on the Saturday of Presidents' Day weekend, visiting UC Davis' biological collections and meeting and talking with scientists. Participating collections include, but are not limited to
- Anthropology Museum
- Arboretum and Public Garden
- Bohart Museum of Entomology
- Botanical Conservatory
- California Raptor Center
- Center for Plant Diversity
- Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven
- Nematode Collection
- Marine Invertebrate Collection
- Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology
- Paleontology Collection
- Phaff Yeast Culture Collection
- Viticulture and Enology Collection (not participating this year but they have in the past)
This year, throughout the month of February, we will be offering a virtual “BioDivDay” with lectures, talks, and demos from experts, but we want our student interns to have the opportunity to take the lead on producing 15 cross-disciplinary videos and educational activities. These videos and activities will broaden our audience and will aim to reach underserved populations. Creating these resources and helping to plan for a future in-person event will solidify our students' science communication skills--skills that are crucial in this day and age. Your support will enable our diverse group of students to have a meaningful and lasting impact as science communicators for Biodiversity Museum Day.
Donations will not only help us sustain the free, in-person event, but it will also enable our student interns to take science outreach to a whole new level. Using their science communication skills, our interns will create 15 themed videos and associated educational activities related to Biodiversity Museum Day. The goal of these educational resources is to reach new audiences and to connect people from all walks of life to science and the biodiversity surrounding them.
To donate, click here:
https://crowdfund.ucdavis.edu/project/24310
Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño, serves as the director of the Haven. Chris Casey manages the half-acre garden, located on Bee Biology Road next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. It is part of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Like to eat? Thank a bee! These hard-working animals pollinate nearly 90 percent of all flowering plants, including the fruits, nuts, and vegetables that make our diets tasty and nutritious. Bees also pollinate the plants that create food and habitat for birds and most other wildlife. It's clear: healthy, abundant bee populations are vital.
But bees are in trouble and they need our help. California has about 1600 native bee species; along with the non-native honey bee all are pollinators. Bees need flowers, and the Haven is a source of information and inspiration about what and how to plant. From a single flowerpot to acres, we can all do something to help.
Our goal is $5000 to purchase plants, irrigation supplies, and tools for the Haven to continue our vital mission of inspiration and education about bees and the plants that support them.
To donate, click here:
https://crowdfund.ucdavis.edu/project/24323
Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology founded and directs the California Master Beekeeper Program. Wendy Mather serves as the program manager.
The California Master Beekeeper Program at UC Davis is raising funds for an online, accessible, 'Beekeeper's Apprentice' course that is educational, engaging and entertaining for all ages.
Learners will explore the intersection of honey bees, beekeepers, farmers, food diversity and security and become beginner beekeepers and honey bee ambassadors, equipped to explain the basics of beekeeping and honey bee biology, and to convey the devastating effects of pesticides, pests, pathogens, habitat destruction, and climate change on our beloved bees. The online course is a series of science-based modules in which you and your avatar, the Beekeepers' Apprentice explore and earn badges for the knowledge and skill you acquire about honey bee biology, beekeeping basics, equipment and PPE, public safety, and the future of farming and food security. You'll get a ‘bees-eye' view of what it's like to be a honey bee through video and audio from inside the hive, and examine the benefits and challenges faced by today's beekeepers and honey bees. This course will be accessible to learners across all demographics so kids and grownups can enjoy "pollinating" and sharing the science behind the relationship between honey bees and our fresh healthy food.
Your donation is a legacy to help ensure the health and longevity of our honey bees. Money raised for our "Beekeepers' Apprentice" course is an investment in science-based knowledge relative to our food security and the health of our environment now and for future generations - let's educate as many people as we can about the plight of our precious honey bees. Together we can bee the change!
Please support the California Master Beekeeper Program, where our current priority is an online, fully accessible, fun, science-based course to raise awareness of our dependence on honey bees for the many delicious and healthy foods we sometimes take for granted! Thank you for your support and consideration in bee-coming a honey bee ambassador and environmental steward!
To donate, click here:
/span>- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It won't be a single day for you to visit all the museums and collections on campus and talk to the scientists. No, this is the UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Month, so you'll have the entire month of February to engage in science programs and activities.
And you won't be walking around campus to do so. The biodiversity event is going virtual, as in Zoom webinars, Facebook presentations and YouTube.
Traditionally held the Saturday of Presidents' Day weekend, it's always billed as a “free, educational event for the community where visitors get to meet and talk with UC Davis scientists and see amazing objects and organisms from the world around us,” according to Biodiversity Museum Day coordinator Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum of Entomology. COVID-19 pandemic changed the 2021 event but not the concept.
- Anthropology Museum
- Arboretum and Public Garden
- Bohart Museum of Entomology
- Botanical Conservatory
- California Raptor Center
- Center for Plant Diversity
- Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven
- Nematode Collection
- Marine Invertebrate Collection
- Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology
- Paleontology Collection
- Phaff Yeast Culture Collection
Unable to join the list this year: the Viticulture and Enology Collection.
More than 4000 visitors attended the ninth annaul UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day, and thousands are expected to participate in the 10th annual. All participating museums and collections have active education and outreach programs, Yang points out, but the collections are not always accessible to the public.
More information will be posted soon on UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day and on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, @BioDivDay.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you're a gardener, you're aware that nematodes are "microscopic, eel-like roundworms" and that "most troublesome species in the garden are those that live and feed within plant roots most of their lives and those that live freely in the soil and feed on plant roots," according to the UC Integrated Pest Management Program website on nematodes.
If you attended the ninth annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day, you learned hands-on information from nematologists Christopher Pagan and Corwin Parker, doctoral students who study with major professor Steve Nadler, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Pagan and Parker held forth at their display in the Academic Surge Building, where they fielded questions about nematodes and showed specimens to the visitors. The nematode collection was one of 13 museums or collections featured at the Biodiversity Museum Day, always held the Saturday of Presidents' Weekend.
Many visitors asked what nematodes are, they related.
Other common questions asked:
- Do I have nematode parasites?
- How dangerous are nematode parasites/can they kill you?
- How long do they live?
- How many species ofode are there?
- Are soil nematodes good or bad for my garden?
Parker shared some of the answers:
Do I have nematode parasites?
Probably not unless you've been traveling a lot. The most common nematode parasite of humans in the US is pinworm which most children get, but not adults. Worldwide however, hundreds of millions of people are infested with parasites including Ascaris, hookworm, and whipworm.
How dangerous are nematode parasites/can they kill you?
Nematode parasites are usually relatively benign unless you have a lot of them. Potentially fatal exceptions do exist, such as zoonotic infections of rat lungworm and raccoon roundworm, but those are rare.
How long do nematodes live?
It depends on the species and life history. Parasitic nematodes can live for a long time, while most free-living nematodes have relatively short lifespans. Some nematodes that live in harsh environments such as deserts can extend their lives by going into a state of suspended animation until environmental conditions are optimal.
How many species of nematode are there?
More than 30,000 described species, but it's estimated there are more than 1 million total.
Are soil nematodes good or bad for my garden?
Most soil nematodes are neutral to beneficial for your garden. They're an integral part of the soil ecosystem and help with nutrient cycling, and some kill of root-feeding insects. There are some plant-parasitic nematodes, but most don't cause significant damage.
UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day
In addition to the nematode collection, the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology showcased the Bohart Museum of Entomology and the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven. Other participating museums or collections at this year's Biodiversity Museum Day: the Botanical Conservatory, Arboretum and Public Garden, California Raptor Center, Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, Paleontology Collection, Phaff Yeast Culture Collection, Viticulture and Enology Culture Collection, Anthropology Museum, Center for Plant Diversity, and Marine Invertebrate Collection.
Here's a glimpse of the Biodiversity Museum Day activities at the Bohart Museum of Entomology and the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven.
If you missed it, calendar the 10th anniversary Biodiversity Museum Day in 2021. The event always takes place the Saturday of Presidents' Day Weekend.