You must make RESERVATIONS for this tour. See below for details.
Visit the UTEP Biodiversity Collection, a research museum. Learn about the history of each collection, look at representative specimens, and the use and importance of natural history collections for research and education. Learn how the specimens are stored. Most of the specimens featured are animals and plants from the southwest US and Mexico, but there is representation from other continents as well. Look through each room: entomology, main, malacology, herbarium and teaching rooms).
“The UTEP Biodiversity Collections is comprised of the university’s biological research collections and the Department of Biological Sciences teaching collections and is a resource for collections-related research in the biological sciences. We provide work space, equipment, and other facilities to classes, individual students, staff, and visiting professionals; as well as informational services to the professional and general public.
“The UTEP Biodiversity Collections is a biological research collection with a focus on research and education. We do not have permanent public displays however, we do cooperate with the UTEP Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens to develop and curate exhibitions related to the research being performed in the UTEP Biodiversity Collections as well as to provide specimens and information for community outreach.
“Libraries preserve books, biological research collections preserve organisms in a similar manner. Biological research collections are continuously growing as the result of research by faculty, students, and other professionals and through exchange with similar institutions. These collections increase in value as they grow; providing a rich source of information about natural variation, species occurrence, and climate change through space and over time. Specimens in biological research collections provide context for comparative biology and the study of evolutionary relationships with both morphological and genetic material.” - https://www.utep.edu/biodiversity/
Your field trip leader will be Mingda “Vicky” Zhuang. The Collections are found at B209 in the Biology Building. The Sun Bowl parking garage will be your best place to park and then walk just a few short blocks to the Biology Building. (MAP)
The tour is limited to 15 persons. You must be at least 18 years-old. Please make a reservation by emailing Jim Tolbert, diegotolbert@gmail.com.