Watch past programs, explore video tutorials, and dive into natural history — wherever you are!
Do you enjoy looking at flowers? What do you want to learn about flowers? Use this step-by-step guide to learn about the different parts of a flower through illustration. Afterwards you will be able to identify perfect and imperfect flowers.
Explore more about plants with the resources in our Online Museum Store.
Post by Elise
The Geology Gents are on the case! Follow the clues and learn how to identify if the rock you’ve cornered is igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic.
This week’s Rockin’ Pop-Up explores the building blocks of rocks: minerals! Join Gavin and Graham for an exploration of how elements bond together to create the minerals that form various rocks.
Week two of our virtual Rockin’ Pop-Up is all about the tools of the trade! We’re thinking about the questions you must ask of the rocks that you find and the tools you will need to answer those questions.
This live program was held on May 4, 2020 and features a presentation from Christian Schwarz in conversation with Marisa Gomez, Public Programs Manager.
The world is changing rapidly — and not just in the way we’re all currently experiencing! Citizen science or community science is an immensely popular model of engaging the natural world, and can be done even while physically distancing.
Using mushrooms and the community of people who admire them as lenses to focus our discussion, we’ll talk about where we’ve come from with traditional science and where community science is taking us.
The Geology Gents get us started with an introduction to rock types and an overview of rock formations in Santa Cruz.
In honor of the halfway point between the start of spring and the start of summer, make an ecologically conscious flower crown.
Post by Marisa
Witness the making of one of the pieces in our exhibit, The Art of Nature, while exploring the natural history of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and learning how to use grisaille and watercolor in your own science illustrations.
Art is essential to increasing scientific knowledge and inspiring conservation. This lecture from Andrea Dingeldein, a local artist and educator featured in the Museum’s 2020 exhibition of science illustration, The Art of Nature, explores science illustration, both historical and contemporary, and its importance as a tool to observe and connect with nature.
Andrea Dingeldein is a marine biologist, naturalist, and general lover of nature. Andrea’s focus is in marine illustration, but she enjoys drawing insects, reptiles, and any other creepy-crawlies she can get her hands on. She specializes in illustrations for peer-reviewed science articles and has published illustrations in Ecological Modeling and Bulletin of Marine Science. Other clients include NC Department of Marine Fisheries, Friday Harbor Laboratories, and Western Society of Naturalists. Explore her work.
Andrea has two pieces in our 2020 exhibition of science illustration, The Art of Nature. Explore the virtual exhibit.
Reuse materials from your home to create a tool to help you observe the secret world of insects more closely — a bug net!
Post by Marisa