Dear Museum Supporter...

Have you always wondered what some of our specimens look like behind the cabinets? Now you can take a look at how these special cabinets keep our collections safe, while exploring educational specimens in the Discovery Lab. Ask a volunteer to open one of the lab cabinets during your next visit. The Discovery Lab is open to visitors of all ages!  

If you are visiting this week, join the mushroom hunt and keep your eyes open for FUN(gi) Fact signs that, like mushrooms, are popping up around UBC campus. There is a prize, a Mushroom Pizza, for the person who finds the most before October 31 – search for them soon!

Along with our new events and museum improvements, we are pleased to announce our newest museum tour, Exceptional Ecosystems, featured daily at 3:00pm. Our museum interpreters will showcase some of the incredible diversity of ecosystems in British Columbia. 

See you soon!

Writer-in-Residence

Aislinn Hunter, author of The World Before Us will be joining us as our Writer-in-Residence for the month of November. You can find Aislinn writing poetry at a desk under the whale in the Museum. She'll be working with different objects from the collection. Go ahead and ask her questions! 

Join Aislinn for a discussion of museums as places of creative inspiration. Listen to a book reading and enjoy a musical performance by critically acclaimed singer, songwriter, and musician Veda Hille on Friday November 14 from 7:00pm-8:30pm.  

Aislinn Hunter is an award-winning author of six books. The Globe and Mail called her new novel The World Before Us (Doubleday) 'the sort of novel which forces you to look at the world - the people around you, the objects they hold dear - in a different light.' 

Events

October 

November

December

Save the date! Our next members' Sneak Peek is Thursday January 15, 2014. It will be an evening event with activities for adults. The spring Sneak Peek will be open to visitors of all ages, including children and families. 

Behind the Scenes 

This month we are featuring our Education and Outreach intern Laura Myers. 

Coming from Ontario, I travelled across the country to complete an internship at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. I am a student in the Museum Management and Curatorship program at Fleming College with an interest in environmental education. The opportunity to be behind-the-scenes at the Beaty has provided me with myriad learning experiences as diverse as the museum's collections. I have been thrilled to assist with the fabrication and installation of a new exhibition, working on the development of an outreach kit, and assisting with the reorganization of the teaching collection. It is truly inspiring to be surrounded by exceptionally passionate, talented, and dedicated professionals. I am looking forward to interacting with visitors in the remaining weeks of my internship to promote a greater appreciation for the natural world.

Window into the Collection

It's almost Halloween and what is more appropriate than spiders?! Above is a video of a male Habronattus coecatus (aka jumping spider) doing a courtship dance for a female. The video was made by Wayne Maddison, the director of our Entomological Collection, who studies jumping spiders. Jumping spiders are the peacocks of the spider world. The male makes a beat with his abdomen and coordinates the vibrations with his leg movements. If the dance isn't good the female will turn the male into a meal instead of a mate. 

Pretty cool, eh? A jumping spider would make a great couples costume for Halloween! Bonus - with that costume you could enter into our Halloween Costume Contest (the best nature inspired costume wins a Beaty Biodiversity Museum T-shirt!).