Filled to the brim with new learning opportunities, “Night at the Museum” is an annual event held during Darwin Week at Mississippi State University, which is put on to celebrate the phenomenon of science.
The doors to the Lois Dowdle Cobb Museum of Archaeology and the Dunn-Seiler Museum opened to the surrounding community, so everyone could take part.
Anna Osterholtz, an associate professor of anthropology and Middle Eastern studies, led a portion of the event focused on anthropology.
“This is for students,” Osterholtz said. “This is for other faculty on campus. This is for interested community members. It’s for kids. It’s just to show kind of what anthropology is, and how we do what we do.”
While the event was intended to appeal to the entire community, the event was specifically designed for students.
“I came to the Night at the Museum because I really enjoy science museums and labs, so I was interested to see what MSU was doing in those terms,” said Diann Evans, a freshman majoring in microbiology.
The event inspired some students to look further into the topics of interest.
“We’ve already talked to several students who are looking at changing their majors and getting into one of the branches of anthropology,” said Billy Wildmon, a recent graduate who decided to come back to work some of the equipment he was knowledgeable about.
The activities and demonstrations at Night at the Museum inspired local children with labs and educational entertainment.
Osterholtz said despite the diverse audience, the goal of the event was to show everyone “what these sciences can really do.”
There were multiple tables set out with activities and displays, including a table where children could identify different types of skulls.
“The Middle Eastern Archaeology lab is open,” Osterholtz said. “The Zooarchaeology lab is open, so you can go down and see what the fossils look like, and that’s just in this building. Geoscience, all of their labs and museums are also open. There’s a lot to see.”
One demonstration which took place at the event was of a portable x-ray fluorescence spectrometer.
“Not a whole lot of grad schools in the country have one of these, and they’ve taught me how to use it. It’s good for us to be able to demonstrate that we have this technology and this capability because things like this can attract people,” Wildmon said.
Because MSU has such an abundance of equipment, the graduate programs in these areas have drawn in people worldwide. Night at the Museum gives departments the opportunity to demonstrate the equipment to the community.
“The machines and equipment used in the lab were extremely interesting and impressive,” Evans said.
To learn more about the science of geology, archaeology and anthropology, visit the social media pages of the anthropology club or Lambda Alpha, two of the organizations which helped organize Night at the Museum.