Educational and Outreach Activities
One of the important missions of the Boston Mal Club is educational outreach to students at all levels and active engagement with the public in a number of venues. Members go to schools to discuss how mollusks help us understand the relationships of this group of animals to changes in biodiversity and global climate. A number of club members are teachers who use shells in environmental and biological units. Members serve as docents in museums and often participate in museum open house events. Each year collections and other materials are presented at regional events and conventions. One of the most successful and well attended events is the Boston Malacological Club shell exhibition at the Boston Sea Rovers Convention. At this event the public not only gets to study arguably the most extensive mollusk display in New England but they can also assemble a free collection of specimens from around the world.
Boston Malacological Club Exhibition at the Boston Sea Rovers Convention
Club Member Warren Graff Exhibits Part of His Spectacular Collection
Click Here to See the Exhibit at the Merrimac Public Library
Mal Club Members Participate in I Love Science Day at Harvard Museum of Natural History
Members of the Boston Malacological Club had an exhibit table at the Harvard Museum of Natural History’s "I ♥ Science," event on Saturday, February 10. Over 500 people attended the event. We met and chatted with several hundred of them, including visitors from Uzbekistan, China, Chile, and other global destinations, as well as many residents, several of whom we signed up to receive our newsletter. We had displays about and described New England scallops, Florida shells, and several varieties of Busycon, including egg cases and their young, poisonous cone snails, money cowries, Arabian cowries, and freshwater pearl clams from China. Martha Chiarchiaro and Joslyn Mills-Bonal coordinated a couple of hundred young attendees who got to take home a selection of largely Floridian beach specimens. We had a stereomicroscope to assist in viewing small specimens. It was a grand afternoon about 'the science of mollusks'. The Museum provided program T'shirts, tasty refreshments and wonderful camaraderie with other volunteers.
Left to right: Joslyn Mills-Bonal, Martha Chiarchiaro, Dennis Bonal, Andrea Dec, and George Buckley are attending our table and showing our Club's banner and a curated selection of shell specimens and educational displays.
--George Buckley--
