Dear subscribers,
The KU Natural History Museum is participating in three exciting programs this summer that will make the museum more accessible and affordable for visitors. Learn more about each one using the links below. We look forward to seeing you at the museum this season!Â
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- Sunflower Summer
- A program through Kansas Tourism that offers Kansas families free admission to attractions across the state.
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Summer of Fun Pass
- Participants can earn points all summer long by visiting Lawrence restaurants, parks, and museums, then redeem the points for fun prizes.
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Blue Star Museums
- Active duty military members and their families get free admission to the KU NHM and hundreds of other venues across the United States.Â
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Sincerely,Â
Natalie Vondrak
Communications CoordinatorÂ
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World Oceans Day
Gallery Activity
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Saturday, June 8Â Â
9:00 AM-5:00 PM
KU Natural History Museum
Dyche Hall
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Celebrate World Oceans Day at the museum! Ask for an activity guide at the Visitor Services desk, then go on an adventure searching for sea creatures in the galleries and participating in ocean themed activities like the cetacean hearing experiment.Â
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| Exploring the Human Body with K-POP!
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Sunday, June 23
2:00-4:00 PM
KU Natural History Museum
Dyche Hall
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Join us and our friends
K-POP, the Kansas Postdoctoral Outreach Project, for awesome science experiments and activities about human anatomy. Visitors can even practice their surgical skills with our giant Anatomy Alex game.
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| Science on Tap
with Dr. Ben Sikes
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Wednesday, June 26Â Â
7:30-8:30 PM
Free State Brewing CompanyÂ
636 Mass St, Lawrence, KS
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Enjoy a pint of beer while learning about the latest scientific discoveries. This month, Dr. Ben Sikes will discuss how microbes living in extreme environments could lead to life on other planets. This free presentation is open to the public.
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Curating Collections: Entomology
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Did you know there are over 10 million specimens and 2 million
archaeological artifacts in the Biodiversity Institute's worldwide collection? And each one has a story just waiting to be shared with you!
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Tiger Beetles, KU Entomology
The Snow Entomological Collection recently received a large donation of Tiger Beetles collected by David Brzoska, an amateur entomologist, dentist and long-time Lawrence resident. Tiger Beetles are ecologically important predators of terrestrial arthropods (insects, millipedes, spiders, etc.), and these specimens will be used by students and scientists working and visiting the KU collection to better understand global biodiversity.Â
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Faculty Early Career Development Award
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Kelly Matsunaga, assistant curator of paleobotany and Thomas N. Taylor Assistant Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, was awarded one of the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious honors: the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award. Kelly's research will uncover how conifer trees have evolved over the last 300 million years in response to a changing planet.
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Foraging Behavior of High-Andean Stingless Bees
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Victor H. Gonzalez, research associate at the KU Biodiversity Institute, and Ph.D student Andés F. Herrera Motta teamed up with researchers in Columbia on their latest publication in Apidologie. The study reveals new findings on the foraging ecology of a rare stingless bee species living in the Andes Mountains of Colombia. Â
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Photo credit: Victor H. Gonzalez
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Phenology of Five Tick Species in the Central Great Plains
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A collaborative study among four universities, including the University of Kansas, reveals the geographic distributions of several tick species. The study involved collecting questing ticks in 2020–2022 using dragging, flagging, and carbon-dioxide trapping techniques.
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Photo credit: Jarrett Mellenbruch
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New Temporary Exhibit
Natural History Museum Collections & Evolutionary Research: An Exhibit
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Why do natural history museums collect specimens? Discover the answer to this question in the new exhibit created by KU Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Ph.D student Katherine Crawford. The exhibit examines evolutionary changes using house sparrows collected over the last 100 years. On display through late summer/early fall.Â
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Grotesque Renewal Project |
The Dyche Hall Grotesque Renewal Project received the Medallion Award, the highest award bestowed by the Kansas Preservation Alliance, at the 2024 Kansas State Preservation Conference. The project was led by local artists Karl and Laura Ramberg and KU architecture faculty Keith and Amy Van de Riet.
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Planning to travel this summer? |
As a KU NHM member, you can use your card to visit over 300 other natural history museums and science centers for free or at a discounted rate — part of the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) Passport Program. See a list of participating institutions on the ASTC website. Not a KU Natural History Museum member? Sign up today!Â
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Staff & Student Spotlights
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Stay up-to-date with current activities and events by following
us on your favorite social media channels.
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Congratulations to Caleb Morse on his promotion to senior specialist/senior collections manager of the KU Botany Division! Read his latest Botany Bios blog post on the KU Botany Division's webpage.Â
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KU Herpetology proudly represented the BI during last month's Explorers Dinner, which included a presentation by Rafe Brown, KU curator-in-charge of Herpetology, on his work in the Philippine rainforests.Â
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Congratulations to Eleanor Gardner, outreach & engagement coordinator, on being selected as this month's Unsung Hero of KU Research!Â
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Teresa MacDonald, associate director of informal science education, presented at the NIH SciEd 2024 Conference. She and collaborators promoted findings from the STEM-themed escape game, VENOMventure.
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Science on Tap with Dr. Jorge Soberón
Wednesday, July 24
7:30-8:30 PM
Free State Brewing Company
636 Massachusetts St. Lawrence, KS
Join us for the next month's Science on Tap event! Special guest Jorge Soberón, University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, will use history and science to explain how a tiny cactus-dwelling insect became a global commodity in his presentation, "The Bug, the Moth, and the Weed."
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