LOCAL FAMILY FUN
Learn more about conservation At Sam Noble Museum:
At OKC Zoo: • FREE daily Caretaker Chats give visitors the opportunity to learn animals’ names, what they eat, how much they weigh and what their personalities are like. • See the veterinary team at work at the OKC Zoo’s Joan Kirkpatrick Veterinary Hospital. Observe procedures ranging from preventative health exams to surgeries. • Visit the OKC Zoo on an animal awareness day. Visitors can interact with animals’ caregivers and learn about conservation projects for that species. At SKELETONS: Museum of Osteology: • Explore the museum’s recent remodel and expansion, including an additional 100 skeletons on display and a refresh of the popular Explorers Corner for kids. Don’t miss the Oklahoma exhibit to learn about our state’s biodiversity, from road runners to American bison. Grab a scavenger hunt at the front desk to take on your self- guided tour!
• Explore the Hall of Natural Wonders to learn about biodiversity. Don’t miss visiting the bat cave and learning why prairie dogs are so important to our environment and ground water.
• Visit the second Saturday of each month for Curiousiday. Activities, story times and programming are free with admission and offered in both English and Spanish. • Summer camps provide animal- and science-loving kids with unique hands-on experiences that could inspire their career paths!
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SAM NOBLE MUSEUM.
• Be an anthropologist for a day through the Junior Forensics program. Learn to analyze and “read” a skeleton. • Find curriculum meeting Oklahoma academic standards for grades PreK through college at skeletonmuseum.com. Plus, find information on Scout badges, homeschool resources and school break camps.
THE SAM NOBLE MUSEUM’S RESEARCH ON LOCAL SPECIES, INCLUDING BATS, HELPS INFORM EFFORTS TO PROTECT AND CONSERVE BIODIVERSITY.
KIDS CAN LEARN HOW TO ANALYZE SKELETONS THROUGH THE MUSEUM OF OSTEOLOGY’S JUNIOR FORENSICS PROGRAM. PHOTO COURTESY OF MUSEUM OF OSTEOLOGY.
Did You Know? The team at the Museum of Osteology cleans and prepares 2,000 to 5,000 skeletal specimens every month for institutions around the globe! The process: 1. Technicians begin by removing the specimen’s mass of tissue.
4. Now, the skeleton, which has come apart in 200 to 400 bones, is ready to be articulated, or put back together, with hand drills and wires. The team also sculpts cartilage to add between the vertebrae or bones. The articulation process takes about 15 to 20 hours for a small specimen, 40 to 45 hours for an anatomical human and up to 700 hours for a whale!
2. Flesh-eating beetles naturally clean the rest of the specimen. 3. The bones are chemically whitened, sanitized and oxygenated.
60 METROFAMILYMAGAZINE.COM / JAN-FEB 2023
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