By BECKY EVANS
To many students, the Bean Life Science Museum is just another building on campus. However, museum administrators say the museum houses one of the finest exhibits of plants and animals in the area.
With an insect collection containing 164,493 specimens, a mammal exhibit containing nearly 14,000 mammals and nearly 14,000 birds and 3,000 reptile specimens on display, the museum offers a wide array of collections.
However, since construction began, student attendance at the museum has been falling. 'Construction makes it harder for students to get here,' said Kenneth Packer, educational coordinator of the Bean Life Science Museum.
The Bean Life Science Museum was founded by Monte L. Bean, a businessman from Seattle. Bean's vision of the museum began with his desire to help people better understand their environment and relationship with other living things, according to museum literature.
In 1972, Bean donated more than 100 animal specimens to BYU that he had collected through his extensive traveling in North America, Africa and India. Later in that same decade, he funded the building of the life science museum to house not only his own animal trophies but also a vast array of other collections.
The museum hosts lecture series, media presentations and mini-courses. Specialty classes are also offered to elementary school children on Saturdays. These classes, called Saturday Safaris, focus on such topics as reptiles, horned animals and African animals. The museum has had more than 1,000 students participate in these classes.
The museum offers an out-reach program where staff of the museum travel to schools throughout Utah County. The museum staff may bring any kind of show to the schools. Karyne Proudfoot, a junior history major from Tigard, Ore., works at the museum and said reptile shows are the most popular.
Adam Clark, a junior from Spanish Fork majoring in environmental science, also works with the out-reach program and has even taken the show to birthday parties. 'Kids like the resources we can bring and the hands-on experience,' Clark said.
BYU students, along with their younger counterparts, are encouraged to make the journey to the Bean Life Science Museum because, 'it adds diversity to the university training experience,' Packer said. 'Museums, whether it be the Museum of Art, Museum of Peoples and Culture, or the Life Science Museum, are important to a well-rounded university exposure.'