It's Meeko's time to shine! This week's Wildlife Wednesdays feature put the spotlight on one of your favorite animal ambassadors: Meeko, the albino raccoon! Chief Wildlife Officer Harvey Webster and Animal Programs Coordinator Nicole Episcopo gave us a behind-the-scenes look at enrichment and training for our bushy-tailed friend, and shared fun facts about thie Ohio-native species.
Material Type: Lecture
Join Director of Astronomy Jason Davis for a tour of the May night skies. Worksheet available for grades 3-4.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture
Programming Coordinator Nicole Episcopo gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Animal Room. She’ll highlight everything that goes into caring for our beloved animal ambassadors, as well as how our animal experts prepare them for use in classes and programs. Worksheets available for grades PreK-K and 1-2.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture
Have you ever seen a dinosaur graveyard? Get your chance during this week’s edition of Scientist Saturdays. Researchers estimate this event—which resulted in a mass grave of Coelophysis bauri casualties—took place about 225 million years ago, during the Late Triassic. The small dinosaurs were likely congregating around a watering hole when they perished in a freak accident (probably a monsoon, based on the evidence) and were quickly buried and preserved. Learn more about the painstaking work of Museum paleontologists to extract the fossilized Coelophysis skeletons from the block. Worksheets available for grades 7-8 and 9-12.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture
Director of Natural Areas and Curator of Botany Dr. Jim Bissell explains why it's important for us to care for native plants in Northeast Ohio and gives us a look at the collections of the Botany Department. Worksheet available for grade 5.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture
Coyotes are remarkable creatures. In the wild, you can find them in almost any habitat throughout North America, including all of Ohio’s 88 counties. But the Museum’s coyotes, Red, Tex, Ember, and Charcoal, were all rescued shortly after birth and are not suitable for the wild. Instead, we’ve built them habitats that mirror their natural environments. Our animal experts work to provide them with daily enrichment to maintain their physical and mental health. In this video, learn about coyote care and go behind the scenes as we celebrate their birthdays with a special enrichment activity. Worksheets available for grades PreK-K and 1-2.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture
Museum Naturalist Judy Semroc brings some dragonfly and damselfly nymphs into our videoconference studio to take a close look at these amazing aerial hunters. Worksheet available for grades 3-4 and 5-6.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture
Some people may think dung beetles are gross. After all, they live in and eat animal waste! But Dr. Nicole Gunter, the Museum’s Associate Curator of Invertebrate Zoology, finds them utterly fascinating. In fact, they’re her favorite animal. “Why?” you might ask. Get the scoop in this video. Worksheets available for grades 7-8 and 9-12.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture
Spend some time studying the Museum’s Sears Hall of Human Ecology with experimental archaeologist Mark Kollecker. Worksheet available for grades 4-6.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture
Curator of Invertebrate Zoology Dr. Joe Hannibal gives us a behind-the-scenes tour of the Museum’s invertebrate paleontology collections, from tiny brachiopods to massive millipedes.
Material Type: Lecture
Collections Manager Amanda McGee shows off some of the coolest fossils in the Museum’s collections. Worksheet available for grades 1-2.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture
Two gray foxes joined the Museum’s menagerie of live native Ohio animals in the reimagined Ralph Perkins II Wildlife Center & Woods Garden—Presented by KeyBank, which opened Labor Day weekend 2016. Gray foxes are one of the only canines that can climb trees—a fact that inspired the young foxes’ names. Buckeye and Ash were born in captivity and hand-raised in Minnesota. In the years since the state-of-the-art wildlife center opened, the pair have bonded with their caregivers and become familiar with their homes. Worksheet available for grades 1-3.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture
Join Nick Anderson on a tour of the technology that powers a planetarium, and even sneak behind the dome for the ultimate inside peek at astronomical action! Worksheet available for grades 3-4.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture
Museum bug wrangler Kate McNeese shows us some of her six- and eight-legged pals and demonstrates how to handle these arthropod animal ambassadors safely. Worksheet available for grades 3-4.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture
Dr. Denise Su, Chief Academic Engagement Officer, Gertrude Haskell Britton Endowed Chair of Education, and Curator of Paleobotany & Paleoecology, tours the Human Origins Gallery, discussing the environment in which Lucy likely lived. Worksheet available for grades 5-12.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture
In 2016, Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Curator of Physical Anthropology, discovered a “remarkably complete” hominin cranium at the Woranso-Mille Research Site in Ethiopia. He spent the next few years analyzing the specimen with the help of his team of experts to determine its age and species. Now, he’s ready to reveal the face of Lucy’s ancestor, which challenges previous theories about evolution, in an article published in the journal Nature. Learn about this discovery and groundbreaking research from Dr. Haile-Selassie himself. Worksheet available for grades 6-12.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture
After a decade of dormancy, the Cultural Anthropology Department at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History has come back to life. Our new Collections Manager, Trisha Patton, has spent the last year digging deep in the Museum’s vast repository of cultural artifacts from around the world. Meet Ms. Patton in this edition of Museum Mondays.
Material Type: Lecture
Dr. David Saja talks through the geology of Ohio and shares details about some of his work with the mineral garnet. Worksheets available for grades 7-8 and 9-12.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture
Paleobiologist Dr. Darin Croft gives us a peek at an exhibit all about extinct South American mammals.
Material Type: Lecture
In this edition of Museum Mondays, learn about the Museum’s new citizen-science initiative, ProtectCLE, with Skye Powers-Kaminski, Manager of Educator Engagement. You’ll get a rundown of the free app iNaturalist, learn about our Biocube Build Challenge premiering tomorrow on Goosechase, and so much more. Worksheet available for all grades.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture
