OMCA Wants to educate you about the fuzzy flying creatures that pollinate life itself
Bees: Tiny Insect, Big Impact opened to the public on Saturday, Jan. 31 at the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA). Expanding upon the exhibit Bees at the Oakland International Airport, the new exhibit includes updated content, cutting-edge science and even more family-friendly, interactive features.
OMCA’s message in this exhibit is clear. “We wanted visitors to understand that bees are essential to California and that they’re endangered,” says Sarah Seiter, associate curator at the OMCA. Bees’ rapid disappearance is exacerbated by climate change and directly affects the foods we eat. The decline in bee populations has already forced some farms to hire human pollinators.
But while its message is largely grim, its delivery is meant to be cheerful and engaging. Bees: Tiny Insect, Big Impact seeks to widen the audience for pressing issues in science by bringing non-experts into the conversation. Each display features multimedia and sensory interactive and hands-on activities, such as drawing, dressing like a beekeeper, climbing inside a honeycomb, examining real bee specimens, listening to the music bees make when pollinating and watching the action up-close. At the end, visitors can relax on a couch and read children’s books about bees.
Bees: Tiny Insect, Big Impact is not just for kids, or entirely data, but a call to action. Visitors are presented with photos of families and children beekeepers in action. Opportunities for supporting scientific studies of “ZomBees” (parasitic flies that attack bees’ brains and make them fly at night) are explained and explored. OMCA hopes you, too, will be empowered to act in support of this cause.
Bees: Tiny Insect, Big Impact will run through September 20, 2015. In March, OMCA will be hosting several events to further engage members of the community. Museum admission is $15 general; $10 seniors and students with valid ID, $6 youth ages 9 to 17 and free for members and children 8 and under. OMCA is located across the street from Laney College at 1000 Oak Street in Oakland. Visit museumca.org for more information.