Education-Outreach

The Colorado Museum of Arthropod Biodiversity will also continue base curatorial work on the general collection, public extension services for arthropod pests, and performing the “Traveling Arthropod Show”, our public education outreach program.  As part of NAU’s biology department outreach program, The Traveling Arthropod Show educates students of all ages and the public about arthropod natural history, biodiversity, and conservation.  Both live and preserved arthropods are brought to classrooms, parks and other education facilities as guides.  Presentations are focused mainly on the biology, ecology and natural history of various native and non native species, using both preserved and live specimens.  Currently we have performed 21 bug shows this year to 964 people, mostly young elementary students.  These presentations are also performed for public audiences at the Arboretum, Willow Bend, Northern Arizona University, and other education facilities. http://bugs.bio.nau.edu/Arthropod_Travel_show/tas/tas2.html.  In addition the CPMAB has provided public extension services, such as information and identification of insects and other arthropods through the media such as public radio KNAU and TV channel 2 KNAZ news.

BiotaEd
BiotaEd was created to formalize our existing efforts in expanding our biological outreach program lead by Robert Delph.  Through BiotaEd we will develop content and online learning modules for instruction on hosting biodiversity presentations and displays using live and preserved arthropods as examples.  We will also host several workshops on presenting biodiversity to K-12 elementary students and public audiences. 
1. Traveling Arthropod Show
The Traveling Arthropod Show educates students of all ages and the public about arthropod natural history, biodiversity, and conservation.  It continues to be a foundational part of NAU’s biological outreach program, Both live and preserved arthropods are brought to classrooms, parks and other education facilities as guides.  Presentations are focused mainly on the biology, ecology and natural history of various native and non native species, using both preserved and live specimens.  Currently we have performed 21 bug shows this year to 2,325 people, mostly young elementary students.  These presentations are also performed for public audiences at the Arboretum, Willow Bend, Northern Arizona University, and other education facilities. http://bugs.bio.nau.edu/Arthropod_Travel_show/tas/tas2.html
2.  Bug Camp for Teachers
In conjunction with BiotaEd we will teach a week long summer bug camp class to elementary school teachers.  During this class elementary school teachers will learn how to present biodiversity and create biodiversity education projects to K-12 elementary students using live and preserved arthropods.
3. Bug Camp for K-12 students
Associated with the Arboretum at Flagstaff, Robert Delph will host three summer bug camps to kids ages 8-14.  The week long bug camp will educate children about insects and their importance in biodiversity and their function in the ecosystem.  The kids will learn how to collect and curate insects and will participate in fun projects using live and preserved arthropods as examples. 

Other Education Outreach
1.  Tropical Forest Insect Ecology - Nicaragua
This new NAU class was offered to forestry and biology students.  Students learn the fundamentals of tropical ecology and spend two weeks at Omotepe field station in Nicaragua conducting original ecology project associated with tropical insects. 
2.  General Entomology 
We teach general entomology every fall semester covering the basic biology of arthropods and their evolutionary ecology.  The course includes a lecture and a lab that offers hands-on experiences that are critical for students to gain a full understanding of the diversity of arthropods.  We offer numerous field trips and a weekend collecting trip to Walnut Creek Center for Education and Research. 
3  Bee Class
Robert Delph was selected to attend a two week workshop in Portal, AZ to engage in intensive study of the taxonomy and natural history of native bees of the South west.  This class will greatly improve his identification skills required for future careers in museum curation and entomology.  It will also allow us to greatly build on our Apoidea reference collection.
4.  CollectionsWeb: Museum workshop
Robert Delph was selected to participate in a national museum workshop that focused on technologies, database development, and museum policy.  The workshop was hosted by CollectionsWeb, which is funded by NSF’s Research Coordination Network (RCN) program.  The project is titled “Building a National Community of Natural History Collections” was started as a way to build communication among people at natural history collections, researchers using those collections, other programs dealing with issues important to collections, and other stakeholders.
5. Extension Service
We identify scores of insects for faculty and students each year.  In addition we identified arthropods from 16 members of the public.  We are able to provide almost full-time availability for extension service.  Due to the number of projects and departmental support for graduate assistants the museum is usually open to the public 8-5PM Monday through Friday.