You can visit UC Davis museums or collections, talk to the scientists, and learn more about what makes UC Davis an internationally known science-based university. The free-and-family-friendly event, set Saturday, Feb. 10, features 10 museums or collections. It's a Super Science kind-of-day, and one you won't want to miss!
Your preferred choice transportation will involve your feet (walking) or wheels (bicycle and car to get to campus and the California Raptor Center on Old Davis Road). It won't be the double-decker bus in the graphic below. But isn't it cool? Each of the museums or collections is represented by a passenger on the bus.
Behind the scenes: In 2020, UC Davis biology laboratory manager (and talented artist) Ivana Li was asked for a graphic to help publicize the event, and she came up with a double-decker bus featuring the participating museums and collections. Fast-forward to this year and Caitlen Comendant, an undergraduate design major at UC Davis, and a media intern for the Center for Plant Diversity and the Botanical Conservatory, colorized the graphic and updated it.
In 2022, we wrote this about the double-decker bus: "All aboard! C'mon in, Ms. Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse. Don't sit too close to Mr. Golden Eagle. Buzz in Ms. Honey Bee. Stay away from Mr. Chinese Praying Mantis, Tenoderasinensis. Sorry, but the driver can neither guarantee your safety nor your arrival at your intended destination."
This year all 12 passengers kept their seats, but the event now features 10 museums and collections instead of 12. Not participating this year are the UC Davis Bee Haven (represented by the honey bee) and the Marine Invertebrates Collection (represented by a California sea cucumber).
The passengers depicted, upper level (from left)
- California Raptor Center: Golden eagle
- UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden: Valley oak leaf
- Anthropology Museum: Projectile point
- Botanical Conservatory: Titan arum
- Phaff Yeast Collection: Budding yeast
- Paleontology Collection: Skull
Lower level (from left)
- Bohart Museum of Entomology: Chinese praying mantis, Tenodera sinensis
- UC Davis Bee Haven: honey bee
- Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology: Salt marsh harvest mouse
- Nematode Collection: Hookworm
- Center for Plant Diversity: Seed cone of a gray pine
- Marine Invertebrates Collection: California sea cucumber (included on bus but this collection will not be included at the Biodiversity Museum Day)
So, is bee is declared safe from the praying mantis? They're still on the bus. (No flora or fauna got eaten or thrown under the bus.)
The 10 museums or collections participating on Feb. 10 and the hours open are:
- Anthropology Museum, 328 Young Hall and grounds, open from noon to 4 p.m.
- Arboretum and Public Garden, Habitat Gardens in the Environmental GATEway, adjacent to the Arboretum Teaching Nursery on Garrod Drive, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Bohart Museum of Entomology, Room 1124 and main hall of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Botanical Conservatory, the greenhouses along Kleiber Hall Drive, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- California Raptor Center, 1340 Equine Lane, off Old Davis Road, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Center for Plant Diversity, Katherine Esau Science Hall off Kleiber Hall Drive, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Nematode Collection (part of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology), Katherine Esau Science Hall, off Kleiber Hall Drive, 10 am. to 2 p.m.
- Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, Room 1394, Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Paleontology Collection, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 1309 Earth and Physical Sciences Building, 434 LaRue Road, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Phaff Yeast Culture Collection, Robert Mondavi Institute Brewery and Food Processing facility, Old Davis Road, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Last year some 4,000 visitors learned "about biodiversity through our amazing biological collections," said UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day chair Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum of Entomology.
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