The traveling exhibit, “Facing up to Beetles: An Entomologist’s Perspective”, has been showing in Wayne, NE, thanks to the efforts of Dr. Barbara Hayford, Professor of Biology at Wayne State College. The exhibition was dismantled two days ago and today Dr. Hayford sent me the report about the various public and online activities they developed around the exhibition for outreach to the local and regional communities. Art work was contributed by three artists, Michael Darby, Sara Taliaferro and Tierney Brosius. These rotated through three display spaces, on and off campus. Some 4000 students and boy scouts visited and participated in activities developed around the beetle theme, e.g. creating beetle artwork, discussions on flight mechanics. I did not visit the exhibition, but received periodic updates about how things were going. It is cool to have built up the exhibitions materials that can a) travel, b) morph to the needs of the local promoter, c) mutate with add-on materials and activities, and d) reach so many people. My role in the universe is shifted to the creation of scientific knowledge but it is rewarding to be a fulcrum between science research and public education.
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