THE LOUISIANA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, AND THOSE OF OKLAHOMA AND FLORIDA: IDEAS IN GEOSCIENCE EDUCATION FROM TWO ACCREDITED MAJOR MUSEUMS AT FLAGSHIP UNIVERSITIES

The Louisiana Museum of Natural History is composed of 16 collections at LSU. Six are geological: micropaleontology, vertebrate paleontology, invertebrate paleontology, palynology, Louisiana Geological Survey log library and core repository, and mineralogy and petrology. LMNH geological displays are not extensive.

Both Florida and Oklahoma have major displays tracing their state’s geologic history, and field trip programs. SNOMNH provides loan kits for teachers on dinosaurs, invertebrates, and rocks and minerals. They sponsor a two-week, pre-collegiate program of paleontological excavations in Oklahoma and at Ashfall State Historical Park (Miocene) in Nebraska. FLMNH includes lifelong learning programs such as paleontological digs at Florida’s Thomas Farm Miocene site. Florida also provides Fossil Horses in Cyberspace, an online, interactive exhibit on horse evolution for all ages.

SNOMNH has a traveling exhibit program that began before its scattered university collections were united in a new building in 2000. From 1982 until the present, their traveling exhibits have reached over 5 million people in 20 states and Canada, including 155 communities in Oklahoma. The FLMNH has a national travelling exhibits program. Their currently touring exhibits are “Tusks: Ice Age Mammoths and Mastodons” and “Megalodon: Largest Shark that Ever Lived.” The exhibits extend the reach of the museum to other venues and promote science to new and diverse public audiences.

Currently the individual collections comprising LMNH are not coordinating educational efforts, and there is no formal plan for them to be unified in a museum building. Friends of LMNH, a citizens’ group, have donated costs of a study of potential museum locations on the LSU campus and an informal, but authoritative, review covering the potential of the LMNH collections to support a major, full service museum. LMNH collections are excellent, but most are at risk in current locations. The Friends hope to support all areas of museum needs. Their ultimate goal is an accredited, unified natural history museum similar to those at other flagship universities like the FLMNH and SNOMNH.