The Fort Collins Museum & Discovery Science Center Blog
by Terry Burton, Digital Media Coordinator
Our last story from the inaugural Fort Collins Memory Project workshop comes from Lew Arlen Meissner, whose family, like many in this area, were Germans from Russia. Enjoy his story here, and if you missed any of the previous four stories, browse back through the last month and be sure to check them out too.
by Terry Burton, Digital Media Coordinator
We’ve got a LOT of behind-the-scenes work going on right now, as we prepare for Discovery Science Center’s move into the Fort Collins Museum building. DSC’s last day in their current location is this Saturday, May 30th (so get over there, like, NOW if you want to have one last look!). Three weeks ago we dismantled the “Poor of Me, Good of Dog” exhibit in the gallery and Exhibit Designer Cory Gundlach began transforming that space into what will become the home of many of DSC’s most-loved hands-on interactive science exhibits. It’s a lot of work, to say the least, and very exciting to see everything taking shape.
The walls are up and prepped, and this week we’re all pitching in to prime and paint. Yes, Directors, Curators, and everything, turned loose with rollers, ladders, and drop cloths. It’s mayhem, but so far the paint is mostly going on the walls, and not too much on each other …. Plan to come check everything out on June 30th, when we unveil science and history under one roof!
Wonderful work-study Ashley tackles the blue wall
Curator Katie demonstrates that it's all in the wrist (and all on her pants)
Soon to be our fantastic new exhibit space
Visualize exciting science exhibits!
by Katie Bowell, Curator of Cultural Interpretation (and bug fan)
In part I of this post, I wrote about a field trip to the Poudre River to collect aquatic insects. Along with being fun to catch and fascinating to look at, aquatic insects are also very important to the ecosystems they live in. These insects are a major food source for waterfowl and fish (most “flies” for fly-fishing are modeled after aquatic insects), and can also be biological indicators of ecosystem health. According to Dr. Kondratieff at Colorado State University, the Poudre River isn’t as healthy as it could be and even though we found a lot of insects, we didn’t find a lot of different species. Usually, the healthier a river, the more species you’ll find.
As it continues to get warmer, more and more insects will be visible around Fort Collins. If you haven’t tried it already, go insect hunting! It doesn’t need to be a complicated production involving waders (although, if you get the chance…), it can be as simple as sitting down on the grass and taking a close look around you – you’ll be surprised at what you see. Just remember these tips:
We’re still figuring out how insects will be incorporated into our new museum, so when you come to visit us, you’ll have to leave the insects at home (at least for the time being).
by Katie Bowell, Curator of Cultural Interpretation
Normally, insects and museums aren’t a good mix. In fact, museums are often downright terrified of insects, with cockroaches, beetles, moth larvae, and silverfish (to name only a few) capable of destroying artifacts made of anything organic, including wood, leather, wool and paper. As a self-professed “insect geek,” I’d love nothing more than to see our museum with a gallery full of terrariums teeming with termites and tarantulas (yes, I know, spiders aren’t insects. But the alliteration was so good, and the only other “t” word I could think of was “Trichoptera,” which are caddisflies, and if I used that there’d be no hiding how truly geeky I really am). Since I’m pretty sure our collections curator won’t allow insects inside the museum, I’ve started thinking of other ways to incorporate insects.
One fabulous, yet perhaps unexpected, way comes in the form of the Poudre River, which will be our neighbor once our new museum facility is built. But when people think about where to find insects, they don’t often think about insects living in the water. Insects fly, crawl, and occasionally come up your shower drain, but swim? Yep. There’s a whole world of aquatic insects most of us know little about.
A few Saturdays ago I had the pleasure to go aquatic insect collecting in the Poudre River at Lions Park with Dr. Boris Kondratieff, Professor of Entomology at Colorado State University, and staff from the City of Fort Collin’s WaterSHED (Stormwater Habitat Education Development) team. It was freezing, rainy, and grey – not the type of day you’d expect to find insects – but as I and other participants soon learned, the Poudre was full of them.
We found our insects by kick netting, which involves sticking a net down into the water and gently kicking the river bed with our feet to loosen the substrate. Anything hiding in the soil gets swept into the net by the current. Technique is important here, especially the skill of not falling into the river while kicking in waders 3 sizes too big (I’m still mastering that one). Very quickly, all of us had nets full of insect larvae. Most insects that have a “water stage” do so as larvae, with the adults leaving the water and looking nothing like the larvae they were.
Some of the highlights of the incredible (and often creepy looking) insects we found were:
-Crane fly larvae bigger than my little finger
-The caterpillar of an aquatic moth (the caterpillar is aquatic, not the moth), which, it turns out, can be parasitized by an aquatic wasp – crazy!
-larvae of Stonefly species that Dr. Kondratieff said haven’t been given names yet
In part two of this post, I’ll explore how important aquatic insects are to the ecosystem, and give you some tips on finding and observing insects yourself.
The Poudre River at Lion's Park (photo: Cache La Poudre River National Heritage Area)
Tipulidae (crane fly) adult (photo: Tom Murray)
Tipulidae (crane fly) larva (photo: Cuckoo's Wasp)
Moth adult (photo: Dale Parker)
Moth larva (photo: Dale Parker)
Plecoptera (stonefly) larva (photo: F. Prieto)
by Terry Burton, Digital Media Coordinator
This week’s story of immigration from the Fort Collins Memory Project comes from Kathy Moddelmog, who recalls her parents’ move to Fort Collins after being married in Chickasha, Oklahoma. Read her story here, and be sure to enjoy the previous stories too (look in the “Oral history & oral tradition” category over on the right for links to the other stories).
It was another gorgeous Colorado weekend and a fantastic time down in Old Town Fort Collins for the Fort Collins Museum’s annual Indian Market. Over two dozen Native American artists and craftspeople from six states were on hand with a wide variety of beautiful wares; Ram Nation kicked off each day with traditional drumming and singing, and then festival goers were treated to contemporary Native American music by Scotti Cliff and the Briggs Brothers, Plateros, and Casper and the Mighty 602. A huge thanks to all of our wonderful volunteers who help make this such a great event, especially Anita and Cary Morin, Linda Aguilar, and Kim Tamkun (and family)!
Beautiful Native American crafts (photo by Matt Gale)
Ram Nation drum group
Indian Market festival goers
Casper of Casper and the Mighty 602 Band (right) and Cary Morin (photo by Matt Gale)
Scotti Cliff
There was a nice article in Fort Collins Now about the new museum project yesterday — we’re always excited to talk about what’s going on! Check it out.
by Deb Price,Education Coordinator, Discovery Science Center
As Discovery Science Center prepares to close the doors at its current site on Prospect Road May 30, visitors have a last chance to visit the popular Bugville exhibit.
During the month of June, Discovery Science Center will be trasitioning many of its exhibits to the Fort Collins Museum, where both sites will open together as one institution June 30. The brand new building to house the new science and history museum will begin construction sometime next year.
In the mean time, Discovery Science Center is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm through May 30 at 703 E. Prospect Road. Admission is $7 for adults, $5.50 for seniors (60+), and $5 for children ages 3-12.
For more information about the move and the new museum project, please visit the partnership website at www.fcmdsc.org.
Come enjoy Bugville one more time!
by Terry Burton, Digital Media Coordinator
The third installment of the Fort Collins Memory Project comes from Stan Schilling and Marol Klein-Goodwin — stories of hard work growing up on the farm (beets for Stan, wheat for Marol) and the strong traditions of the Germans from Russia, including music and dancing the Dutch Hop. Find Stan and Marol’s story here.
A truck load of beets heads to the beet dump
by Jason Wolvington, Associate Director, Discovery Science Center
I’m still bitter.
OK, so maybe “bitter” isn’t the right word. Heartbroken? Disappointed? It’s probably more that I’ve always known Pluto as a planet, and so that’s how it always will be in my mind. That’s legit, right?
Actually, no … it’s not.
Back in August 2006, at a meeting of the International Astronomical Union, astronomers made a final decision about the definition of a planet. For an object to be considered a “planet,” it needs to meet these three requirements:
From this, Pluto meets only 2 of the 3 requirements – it has not “cleared out” the neighborhood of its orbit. Simply put, Pluto is just one object within the Kuiper Belt, a large collection of celestial bodies similar to an asteroid belt. And wiithin the Kuiper Belt, there are several objects, some of which are even larger than Pluto. So Pluto is not a classified as a planet anymore, just another object in the Kuiper Belt. Make sense?
So what does this mean? In a nutshell, it means that science is doing its job.
Science is a way of seeking to understand our natural world, through observation, experiments, and analysis. Science relies on examining evidence and interpreting its findings through logic; it is tested, repeated, and verified. A scientific theory is a well-substantiated explanation for a set of phenomena that has been tested and verified.
And that’s the key: while scientific theories may be well-supported by evidence, they can be modified or replaced as new evidence appears. Science changes – and it should! – as new discoveries are made.
A perfect example: for thousands of years, people believed the Earth was stationary – and flat! – located at the center of the universe. It wasn’t until scientists such as Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton – using a combination of advances in mathematics and developments in telescope optics – developed a new understanding of astronomy and physics that led to new discoveries. You know, things like correctly recognizing that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and that all other planets are ruled by the same physical laws as the Earth.
And that’s what happened to our now non-planet Pluto. As scientific discoveries were made, science adapted … and the Solar System now has 8 planets. It’s not so much that Pluto was demoted, but rather scientific thought refined the classification of what constitutes a planet. And unfortunately, Pluto no longer meets the requirements.
Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet, along with Ceres, Eris, Haumea, and Makemake, all found in the Kuiper Belt. Will it someday regain its planetary status? Perhaps. But with dwarf planet Eris being larger than Pluto, we may have to adjust from the current 8 planets to 10.
And that would just be crazy, right?!
Postscript: It’s only appropriate that we pay homage to Venetia Phair, who, as an astronomy-loving 11-year old in 1930, proposed the name “Pluto” for the newly-discovered “Planet X.” She passed away on April 30th, at the age of 90.
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