A Fun Day at the MSU Museum: Darwin Discovery Day!

MSU Darwin Discovery Day set for Feb. 14, 2010
MSU Museum to host “Avelution” exhibit

Michigan State University will mark the 201st anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin with a variety of events, including a new exhibition at the MSU Museum that looks at the role birds played in the development of Darwin’s theories. MSU Museum's annual Darwin Discovery Day, is hands-on science and discovery for the whole family, Sunday, Feb. 14, 2010, 1-5 p.m., presented free of charge.
Some of the scheduled events are:

• Museum curators, MSU graduate students and specialists can help you identify backyard curiosities. Bring in a rock, bone, fossil, tooth or other natural object. (Note: The MSU Museum cannot provide estimates on the commercial value of any specimen nor provide expertise on human-made artifacts at this program)
• Live critters with the Michigan Society of Herpetologists and MSU Museum's naturalist, Jim Harding the Critterguy
• Live chickens and pigeons -- showing special breeds
• Bird skeletons from MSU Museum's Vertebrate Natural History collections, as well as other interesting and unusual museum specimens Museum research collections
• Tours of the MSU Museum's "Bug Room," featuring beetles that help prepare animal skeletons for inclusion in the collections as they clean away flesh from tiny crevices in bone that human hands and tools can never reach
• Tours of Habitat Hall, Hall of Evolution and a rare, behind-the-scenes glimpse at MSU
• Dinosaur casts in Habitat Hall, showing recent finds from museum fieldwork and research in Tanzania
• Darwin's Study -- a recreation of Charles Darwin's office with specimens, books, furnishings and a live Darwin re-enactor.
• Meet the Scientist: MSU Museum Assistant Curator of Mammalogy and Ornithology Pamela Rasmussen

There also will be hands-on activities for children, a birthday cake and refreshments, and books and education resources at the Museum Store. To learn more, visit http://museum.msu.edu/Events/NaturalHistoryIDDay/.

The Michigan State University Museum joined natural history museums and science centers around the world in observing naturalist Charles Darwin's birthday with these special programs. Science institutions worldwide have created special programs around Darwin's birthday that help promote an appreciation for the benefits of scientific knowledge acquired through human curiosity and ingenuity. Learn more at http://darwinday.org/.