During summer 2024 and 2025, two cohorts of 10 Florida Elementary school teachers attended a new professional development workshop titled, “Moving and Improving the Florida Museum of Natural History Fish Collection.”

Much of the workshop took place in the Florida Museum of Natural History’s brand-new, state-of-the-art Special Collections Building. The building houses roughly 4 million specimens preserved in 60,000 gallons of ethyl or isopropyl alcohol that make up the Museum’s expansive “wet” collections, including those from the Herpetology, Ichthyology, Invertebrate Zoology, Mammals, and Ornithology divisions. Storing specimens used by scientists worldwide, the building serves as a space for researchers to conduct studies that provide critical information for our global community.

During the workshop, participants learned what it’s like to be a scientist working with museum collections and the processes involved in moving specimens and updating a collection. These processes included identifying, preserving, cataloging, photographing, and digitizing specimens for use. Scientists also helped organize, provide access to, and properly store specimens. Participants left the workshop with content expertise that is sure to get their students excited and expose them to STEM  topics. Teachers also had the opportunity to work with cohort members and scientists throughout the year!

There were two annual cohorts funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Meet the two teacher cohorts here:

Cohort I: Moving and Improving the Florida Museum of Natural History Fish Collection (June 2024)

Cohort II: Moving and Improving the Florida Museum of Natural History Fish Collection (June 2025)

Workshop Benefits:

Instructors

Funding Sources

NSF logo