Unseen Treasures on Display for two days only during the Natural History Museum of Utah’s annual Behind the Scenes Event, Nov. 12 - 13
The Museum celebrates five years at the Rio Tinto Center with the unveiling of a re-designed three-story collections wall
SALT LAKE CITY - The Natural History Museum of Utah’s annual Behind the Scenes event is one of five signature events commemorating the Museum’s fifth anniversary move to its modern mountainside home at 301 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, Utah. For two days only, Saturday and Sunday, November 12-13, 2016, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., the doors to Museum labs and collection rooms will be open to the public.
Curious young scientists and visitors of all ages will get an insider’s view of collections not usually on public display. Currently, only about 3,500 science specimens and cultural artifacts (less than one percent) of the Museum’s 1.5 million objects, are visible to visitors throughout the Museum’s 10 permanent galleries. The rest of the collections are carefully catalogued and placed in climate-controlled storage areas, where the Museum houses:
· Close to one million anthropology artifacts (human origin, behavior, culture)
· 200,000 entomology specimens (insects)
· More than 135,000 botanical specimens (plants)
· 73,000 vertebrate zoology specimens (mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles)
· 40,000 malacology specimens (shelled creatures, including some that are now extinct)
· Nearly 30,000 paleontology artifacts (plant and animal fossils)
· More than 5,000 rocks and mineral specimens
“With so many priceless objects in the collections,” says Executive Director Sarah George, “we hope the people of Utah will get excited about this unique opportunity to see fascinating objects, learn about how they are cared for, and talk with scientists about their current research, studies and discoveries.”
Visitors to this year’s Behind the Scenes will also be the first to witness another portion of the fifth anniversary celebration happening that weekend—the unveiling of the Museum’s newly redesigned three-story glass Collections Wall located in the heart of the Museum’s Canyon area. Because too much exposure to sunlight can negatively impact delicate objects, the massive collections wall will be given a brand-new look about every five years.
The public may participate in Behind the Scenes with the price of regular admission.
https://nhmu.utah.edu/visit/hours.
Admission to Behind the Scenes is free to members. Please visit https://nhmu.utah.edu/behind-the-scenes.
The Museum of Natural History would like to thank American Express for its generosity in serving as the Presenting Partner of the 2016 Behind the Scenes event.
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About the Natural History Museum of Utah
The Natural History Museum of Utah is one of the leading scientific research and cultural institutions in the country. Established in 1963, the Museum features collections containing over 1.5 million objects and offers innovative exhibitions and educational programs to thousands of residents and visitors each year, including traveling and permanent exhibits, special events and other programs. With more than 250,000 visitors a year, the Museum also offers a variety of outreach programs to communities and schools throughout Utah, reaching every school district in the state annually. The Museum has an active scientific research program with more than 30 scientists and 10 field expeditions each year.
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Sports are a powerful force. They can shift the focus from disability to ability, from isolation to involvement. Special Olympics changes attitudes and changes lives.
You can be a valuable part of helping raise the funds necessary that will allow our athletes to find joy through the power of sports and competition. Thanks to the generosity of supporters like you, Special Olympics Utah is able to provide year-round sports and programming to over 1,700 children and adult athletes with intellectual disabilities at no cost to themselves or their families. Help us bring the power of sport to one more athlete.
Please support our 2016 Fall Fund Drive by making a donation this November. Your tax-deductible donation will help us to serve our athletes in 2017 and make a lasting impact in the life of an individual with an intellectual disability.
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World Heritage Student Exchange Programs, in cooperation with your community high school, is now looking for local families to host boys and girls between the ages of 15 to 18 from a variety of countries: Japan, Denmark, Norway, Italy, and Spain, to name a few.
World Heritage students are enthusiastic and are excited to experience American culture while they practice their English. They also share their own culture and language with their host families. Host families welcome these students into their family, not as a guest, but as a family member, giving everyone involved a rich cultural experience.
The exchange students have pocket money for personal expenses and full health, accident and liability insurance. World Heritage students are selected based on academics and personality and host families can choose their student from a wide variety of backgrounds, countries and personal interests.
World Heritage is also seeking volunteers to serve as community representatives. Area Representatives recruit and screen potential host families, supervise the exchange students in their community, organize activities with the students throughout the year and provide support to host families, students and schools. Area representatives receive compensation covering their expenses incurred for each student placed and supervised.
To become a World Heritage host family or to find out how to become involved with World Heritage in your community, please call Courtney at (866) 939-4111, go online to www.WhHosts.com or email Courtney@World-Heritage.org. You can begin your host family application online. Students are eager to learn about their American host family, so begin the process of welcoming your new son or daughter today!
WORLD HERITAGE (FORMERLY SPANISH HERITAGE) IS A NON-PROFIT, TAX-EXEMPT, PUBLIC-BENEFIT ORGANIZATION. WORLD HERITAGE IS OFFICIALLY DESIGNATED AS AN EXCHANGE VISITOR PROGRAM BY THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE AND IS FULLY LISTED WITH THE COUNCIL OF STANDARDS ON INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAL TRAVEL (CSIET)
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Education Department Releases Teacher Prep Program Regulations
American Board Makes Statement on Potential Impacts
The Department of Education released a slew of standards on Oct. 31 as a way to grade teacher preparation programs. The regulations, which have received a mix of praise and ridicule, are now open to further action by Congress.
The American Board’s core mission is to provide communities with quality educators and we welcome conversation on how to adapt our program to better the educators we certify. A well-prepared and highly skilled educator can lead to better educational outcomes for the students they impact on a daily basis.
However, the grading standards place a heavy emphasis on a student’s academic performance as the measuring stick for the quality of the preparation program the student’s teacher graduated from. Tying a student’s grades to the effectiveness of their teacher has already worsened the nation’s teacher shortage as it has caused the perception of education career as hostile workplace. The American Board’s concern is the further binding of a student’s success to preparation programs will worsen the teacher shortage and discourage more individuals from becoming educators.
Diane Ravitch, a research professor of education at New York University, called the standards “very bad ideas” and “nonsense” in a recent blogpost detailing why a student’s academic success should not reflect positively or negatively on the teaching program their educator went through.
“It has no validity. It will worsen the problems it is intended to solve,” Ravitch writes about the proposal.
The American Board hopes to constantly improve its own teacher certification program and hopes that the standards to measure areas of improvement are perfected to best serve those on all levels of the education spectrum.
The American Board is a non-profit, non-partisan organization established by the U.S. Department of Education in 2001 and dedicated to building strong communities by preparing,
certifying and supporting teachers. Through a flexible and cost-effective certificate program, the American Board has awarded more than 6,000 teacher certifications across 12 states.
For more information call 1-877-669-2228 or visit www.americanboard.org.
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New book reflects joy, anguish, longing, desperation, confusion resulting from loving someone or falling in love
LOS ANGELES – Joan Booth admits that her personal experiences and those of others regarding the emotion of love inspired her to write "Love Bites," (published by Xlibris) a book that tackles this universal emotion.
Love is one of the most profound, mysterious and complicated emotions known to human beings. Loving another has many events that can affect everyone in many different ways. The illustrations in this book reflect the joy, anguish, longing, desperation and confusion that can result from loving someone or falling in love.
“People are seeking to establish a means of relating to another to provide deep and meaningful fulfillment that nurtures and sustains,” Booth says. “This book will appeal to readers because the emotion of love is common to human beings and can be expressed in various ways.”
Booth’s inspiration to draw humorous, satirical and poignant illustrations arises from her desire to spotlight the nature of love and create pictures that everyone can relate to – the highs and the lows, the joys and the pains, and the uncertainties and the hopes – the universal experiences of anyone who has ever loved or been in love.
“Love Bites”
By Joan Booth
Softcover | 6 x 9in | 100 pages | ISBN 9781524551599
E-Book | 100 pages | ISBN 9781524551582
Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble
About the Author
Joan Booth is an artist and educator living in Los Angeles. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of California at Los Angeles and her Master of Education in Instructional Technology from American International University.
Xlibris Publishing, an Author Solutions, LLC imprint, is a self-publishing services provider created in 1997 by authors, for authors. By focusing on the needs of creative writers and artists and adopting the latest print-on-demand publishing technology and strategies, we provide expert publishing services with direct and personal access to quality publication in hardcover, trade paperback, custom leather-bound and full-color formats. To date, Xlibris has helped to publish more than 60,000 titles. For more information, visit xlibris.com or call 1-888-795-4274 to receive a free publishing guide. Follow us @XlibrisPub on Twitter for the latest news.
