Richard Evans Schultes—ethnobotanist, taxonomist, writer, photographer, and Harvard professor—is regarded as one of the most important plant explorers of the twentieth century. In 1941, Schultes traveled to the Amazon rainforest on a mission to study how Indigenous peoples used plants for medicinal, ritual, and practical purposes. A new interactive online map, produced by the Amazon Conservation Team, traces the landscapes and cultures that Schultes explored in the Colombian Amazon. Plotkin and Hettler will share this map and discuss the relevance of Schultes’ travels and collections for...

For nearly three decades, Paul Weinberg has travelled to Namibia, Botswana and South Africa to document the lives of hunter-gatherer communities, the San (Africa’s first people) and their struggles to hang on to their land, culture, and values, as they faced serious threats by outside settlers. Weinberg will discuss his book Traces and Tracks (2017), the culmination of his thirty-year journey, featuring essays and over 100 photographs that convey the modern-day San’s daily lives, their relationship to nature, game parks, and their ways of adjusting to a fast-changing...

Olive fruit and oil have been used for more than 6,000 years as much more than food. In this active experience led by a museum educator, parents and kids will discover the importance of olives in ancient Israel. Families will explore the Houses of Ancient Israel exhibit, craft working olive-oil saucer lamps to take home, handle artifacts, and crown themselves winners in a gallery game with victory wreaths. End the program with an optional olive taste test of products provided by Salt & Olive (Harvard Square).

Two sessions: ...

Olive fruit and oil have been used for more than 6,000 years as much more than food. In this active experience led by a museum educator, parents and kids will discover the importance of olives in ancient Israel. Families will explore the Houses of Ancient Israel exhibit, craft working olive-oil saucer lamps to take home, handle artifacts, and crown themselves winners in a gallery game with victory wreaths. End the program with an optional olive taste test of products provided by Salt & Olive (Harvard Square).

Two sessions: 10:00–11:30...

Attend an open house to meet teachers and families and learn more about child care programs on Harvard’s campuses. For more general information, please visit the Office of Work/Life’s website. For detailed children’s center information, please see the websites of individual centers.

Attend an open house to meet teachers and families and learn more about child care programs on Harvard’s campuses. For more general information, please visit the Office of Work/Life’s website. For detailed children’s center information, please see the websites of individual centers.

Attend an open house to meet teachers and families and learn more about child care programs on Harvard’s campuses. For more general information, please visit the Office of Work/Life’s website. For detailed children’s center information, please see the websites of individual centers.

Attend an open house to meet teachers and families and learn more about child care programs on Harvard’s campuses. For more general information, please visit the Office of Work/Life’s website. For detailed children’s center information, please see the websites of individual centers.

Take a closer look and explore the world of minuscule bugs! Learn together through hands-on activities designed to show you how to classify and identify these numerous and diverse creatures! Participate in activities in our incredible arthropods gallery. Observe and touch live invertebrates, and then go outside and collect some of your own. Dig in the dirt and learn how invertebrates help people compost food waste into soil. Create your own scientific equipment that will help you continue the study of entomology at home. All activities are designed to be fun and interactive...

Dive deep into the underwater life of marine animals! Learn all about the challenges of life at sea with hands-on activities. Investigate the museum’s collections with interactive gallery explorations. See and touch living ocean animals to learn more about the amazing adaptations they have to survive their salty habitats. Create your very own ‘dive log’ to document your favorite specimens of the day and continue the learning at home. All activities are designed to be fun and interactive experiences for elementary age students and their families to participate in together.

Fees...

Come see the world through the eyes of a scientist and explore what research reveals about life and our planet. Graduate students from the departments of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Human Evolutionary Biology, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University will share their research through hands-on activities in the museum galleries. This program is designed to actively engage families in learning more about science and exciting new discoveries in our natural world.

Regular museum admission rates apply.

Presented...

Four Saturdays: March 30, April 6, 13, and 27
9:30 -11:30 am

Explore the beauty and variety of plant forms using pencil, watercolor, and colored pencil. This four-week course will introduce botanical drawing techniques through close observation and practice with contour, gesture, foreshortening, shading, and color. All skill levels are welcome.

Instructor: Erica Beade

Fees: $110 members/$130 nonmembers

Advance Registration required....

The world of birds is full of diverse behaviors and appearances. Some birds blend in with their environment, while others do everything they can to stand out. How and why do birds achieve these visual feats, and what can it tell us about their natural history and evolution? Harvard University biologist Dakota McCoy will use feather and bird specimens from the University's collections to explore how and why this diversity of forms and behaviors arose. Artist Erica Beade will show participants techniques to capture the nuance of avian color and form in their drawings.

Fees: $45...

What makes a mineral a mineral? Find out in this hands-on and interactive program. Be a geologist for the day and learn how to identify minerals. Discover the secret properties that make some minerals truly unique. Participate in gallery explorations of our mesmerizing mineral collections. Investigate the different uses of minerals and even create your own mineral pigment artwork to take home! All activities are designed to be a fun and interactive experience for elementary age students and their families to participate in together.

Fees: $15 members/$25 nonmembers, per person...