Make a Natural History Museum
How Kids Can Turn a Nature Collection into an Exhibit
Kids will learn how to research and sort the specimens that they found during their scavenger hunt, and then create their own museum.
For this part of the museum building you will need books about animals--field guides will be the most handy. There are field guides on birds,insects, mammals, invertebrates, butterflies, trees and wildflowers. These are available from most libraries and in many home libraries.
If you are in the city you will find your collection differs in many ways from the collection that can be made in the country. But it can be just as interesting and useful in the study of natural history.
Look at the items you have collected and sorted. Decide on the categories and method of preserving each. Sort them and decide what to keep and what to put back outside.
Locate the items in your field guides and write the names and facts on index cards. Try to find an interesting fact about each to help you remember it. These will come in handy when you act as curator (museum guide and keeper).People who come to see your collections will want to hear these bits of trivia.
Say you have a turtle shell. You look it up, find out it is from an Eastern box turtle and that they are only found in North America, east of the Mississippi River. That is your fact to write on the index card.
Put the title on one card to keep a listing of all specimens as you go. File the cards in a small plastic file keeper box.
This part of the museum making is time-consuming, but it is a nice way to spend those hot summer afternoons. It is also fun and may lead to a life-long interest.
For example, an interest in walking stick insects could lead to a career as an entomologist. You never know!
