Welcome Back!

Welcome back students! It’s great to see so many faces back on campus. I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing summer break! This semester at the Museum of Natural History is full of exciting opportunities for students and faculty. 

Are you interested in volunteering or need to complete a service learning requirement? Well, the museum is the place for you! We provide opportunities for students to work in the gift shop and education department. You can also help out with children’s programming, museum tours, and public outreach – like the UI Homecoming Parade, FRY Fest, Creepy Campus Crawl, and more! For more information about volunteer, please contact Ashlee Gloede, Assistant Education and Outreach Coordinator – ashlee-gloede@uiowa.edu. Also check out our booth at the UI Volunteer Fair on Wednesday August 29^th from 11am-3pm in the IMU.

If you are not interested in volunteering, that’s okay too. The museum offers a wide range from programs from children’s birthday parties to adult lectures. And it’s also a fun place to hang out between classes. We are open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 10am-5pm, Thursdays 10am-8pm, and Sundays 1pm-5pm. For more information about the museum, please call 319-335-0606 or email uimnh@uiowa.edu. This week only we will be open until 8pm on Wednesday! Stop by and meet Rusty out Giant Ground Sloth.

Over the summer, the museum became involved with a mammoth excavation in Southern Iowa. For the past two years John and the family have kept the discovery of the mammoth relatively quiet, but they recently decided to enlist the help of UI experts to aid in the excavation.  So far more than thirty bones have been recovered, including an impressive femur, multiple ribs and vertebrae and a few toe bones. We will be visiting the site periodically throughout the semester, so if you are interested in volunteering at a dig please contact Sarah Horgen – sarah-horgen@uiowa.edu – for more information. I would highly recommend this once in a life time opportunity! 

There are many organizations and groups to join on campus, and sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming. Tomorrow is the Student Organization Fair at Hubbard Park from 11am-3pm., which you can meet and talk with the different organizations on campus. A great organization to join is the Campus Museum Collective. This organization is dedicated to strengthening the position of campus museums within the University community. It seeks to assist campus museums in efforts of outreach, while fostering a robust collective of individuals committed to the advancement of these important institutions. If you are interested in joining, please email iowa.cmc@gmail.com to get more information. 

Have a wonderful semester and remember to stop by the museum!

-Written by Assistant Education Coordinator Ashlee Gloede