Introduction
Museums in Miniature: Bringing Entomology to Public K-12 Education
What are MiMS?
The MiMs project started was started by staff and students at Clemson University in South Carolina, and now we are bringing it to the Mississippi Entomological Museum in Mississippi. MIMs are mini-museums. Each mini-museum is a glass topped insect drawer with 100 pinned specimens including the state insects and other commonly encountered insects. Drawers are loosely organized by order and contain families from the five major insect orders (Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, and Diptera) and assorted other superorders. People learn from examples, so only specimens that have been properly pinned, pointed, and labeled are included. This way, students can see what a real museum looks like, albeit on a smaller scale. Families of insects, or even particular species, are selected to facilitate lessons in ecosystem services, integrated pest management, and conservation. For example, every drawer includes pollinators (e.g., bees and moths), agricultural and urban pests (e.g., Japanese beetles and smokybrown cockroaches), and invasive species (e.g., the kudzu bug).
In addition to the Museums in Miniature, museum staff and students have created lesson plans and fact sheets that teachers can use for classroom instruction. Current fact sheets are available on this web site, just click the "Fact Sheets" tab on the left menu bar to read or download them. For anyone interesting in creating a fact sheet, a Template is available (link on left menu bar).
Current Programs:
Mississippi Project Manager: Dr. Pat Wooden PLW161@msstate.edu
South Carolina Project Manager: Dr. Mike Ferro spongymesophyll@gmail.com(Clemson University)
Want a MiMs for your school, library, or museum programming? Contact your local project manager.
Interested in bringing MiMs to your state or sponsoring a drawer? Contact Dr. Wooden.
Current and Past Funding:
Entomological Society of America Chrysalis Fund
South Carolina Entomological Society
Link to an article about the project in South Carolina: https://news.clemson.edu/miniature-museums-show-how-bugs-are-cool/
DOI for publication about the project: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ae/tmae026
