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.
Attached Images:
Entomologist Jeff Smith, curator of the Lepidoptera section at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, answers questions from UC Biodiversity Museum Day visitors. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A youngster feeds a stick insect at the Bohart Museum of Entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Miss Beehaven, a sculpture of a worker bee by artist Donna Billick of DAvis, anchors the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven on Bee Biology Road, part of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Nematologist and doctoral student Corwin Parker of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology looks through a microscope at a UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)