By Amorie Sheen
Freshman academy students are getting the opportunity to show animals specimans and educate audiences at the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum.
As a part of the freshman academy Biology 100 class, students are required to do eight hours of community service.
The 30 students that have volunteered at the Bean museum have to research and conduct shows on various types of animals and insects.
There are two shows every evening. The first show is at 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and the second show is at 7:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 7:00 p.m. on Friday. There is also a show at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Each show is presented by a pair of volunteer students.
This is the first year that the freshman academy biology class has required the community service time.
Theresa Rehder, 18, a freshman and open major from Los Gatos, Calif. said she thinks it is a good opportunity to learn more about biology.
Not all of the students are happy about the new requirement.
Meradeth Buck, 18, a freshman majoring in archeology from Woodland, Calif. said freshman academy has taken more of a time commitment than she had anticipated.
Though Buck said she enjoys doing the museum shows, she doesn’t feel that community service should be an obligation.
The students are given general training on how the different shows should be put on, but they can research and learn their own information to teach in the shows.
“They’ve been really self-motivated,” said Kellie McMullin, 20, the project coordinator for the freshman academy service learning.
In addition to the shows, the students can also volunteer their time in the reptile room. The reptile room, located downstairs in the museum, is home to about 15 live reptiles McMullin said.
The students are taught to care for the reptiles including learning to feed them, clean their cages, and how to handle them.
The inhabitants of the reptile room, mostly donated animals, are used in the reptile show.
Saturday Safari is another volunteer opportunity for the students. Children can come to Saturday Safari for several hours and learn about the museum exhibits.
McMullin said the students are getting a lot of hands-on training.
Some of the topics for the shows are mammals, birds, insects, animal adaptations and venomous animals
The shows are free to the public and are scheduled to run through the end of October.
