MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY OFFERS
JUNIOR CURATOR CAMP
The Junior Curator Camp was presented as part of
the College of Sciences and Mathematics Office of
Outreach summer enrichment academy, Science Matters.
Science Matters offers youngsters a supercharged science
experience where participants explore the world through
science experiments, enrichment activities, technology
and art projects, and hands-on, make-and-take activities.
The program includes multiple science-themed weeks of
programing, including the Museum of Natural History’s
Junior Curator Camp.
For more information on the Auburn University Museum
of Natural History, visit www.auburn.edu/cosam/aumnh.
For more information on the programs offered by
COSAM’s Office of Outreach, go to the website at
www.auburn.edu/cosam/outreach.
Pictured left: Tetrapods Collections Manager David Laurencio
works with junior curators as they explore fossils.
Pictured bottom: Aquatic Invertebrates Collections Manager
Brian Helms checks a trap for critters and discovers a lizard.
The Auburn University Museum of Natural
History hosted a new outreach program in summer
2015, the Junior Curator Camp. The two-week
program is designed for middle school age children
and provides a hands-on opportunity to learn what
it’s like to be a curator in the Museum of Natural
History.
This year, approximately 40 junior curators learned
about local flora and fauna, and they received
personalized instruction from museum staff on how
scientists collect, identify, and prepare specimens to
be deposited in the museum.
The camp began with a behind-the-scenes tour
of the Museum of Natural History, and museum
staff gave presentations on the various collections.
Much of the program brought the junior curators
outdoors to explore local ponds and woods where
they participated in a raptor release; learned
to identify native plants; and collected and
identified all manner of reptiles, fish, invertebrates,
amphibians, insects, and more. Participants also
completed art projects, and at the end of the camp,
they competed in frog, crayfish, and toad races.
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Journey/Fall: 2015