2024 Night at the Museums Report

The most popular museum event of the year has come and gone again! On Friday, March 22, over 1000 people came through the 5 museums on BYU campus. At each museum, patrons solved a clue that directed them to a certain area within the museum where they could earn a sticker: five stickers earned the patron the grand prize of a museum tote bag! 

It was a perfect mix of educational and fun, with visitors having the opportunity to learn from biome programs, curiosity carts, and of course our museum educators ready to share! For visitors with an appetite for not just learning, we had plenty of maple bar donuts and a station with balloon animals and other creations.

Plenty of patrons had their phones out to commemorate the occasion, but for the ones that wanted something a little more professional there was a photo booth set-up complete with props that can only be found at a life science museum.

We ended up with extra donuts at the end of the event (an exciting prospect for museum workers who wanted to bring some home) but it’s also a sign that there’s always room for more visitors during our yearly Night at the Museums event!

Amy, museum educator

2024 Mystery Dinner Night Report

On March 9, 2024 history’s greatest and most influential scientists were invited to the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum to witness the unveiling of a brand new exhibit. Following the dinner, invited guests were horrified to realize that the specimen, Ursus Gummimus or the North American Gummy Bear, had been stolen! 

The museum’s security team quickly locked down the museum and identified eight primary suspects: Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel, Sally Ride, Jane Goodall, Bill Nye, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, and Beaker. 

Guests completed tasks, puzzles, and riddles to reveal that the specimen had been stolen and hidden in the museum by none other than Jane Goodall, the famous primatologist. Thanks to three teams, she was quickly brought to justice and the specimen was returned to its exhibit in one piece.

Jonathan, museum educator

Pictured above is the second place team with the eight suspects, Monte L. Bean, and our head security guard.

Below are the eight suspects waiting for the thief’s identity to be revealed. 

2024 Winter Birding Report

On February 17th the Bean Museum hosted its birding Nature Experienceship with Utah birding expert Merrill Webb. The group traveled to the Gunnison Bend Reservoir in Delta, Utah to see the snow goose migration. There was also a stop at Oxbow Lake for waterfowl viewing. 

Here is the full list of birds spotted:

Western meadowlark

Sandhill crane

Green-winged teal

Northern pintail

Gadwall

Mallard

Canada goose

House sparrow

Snow goose

Ross’s goose

Trumpeter swan

American wigeon

Canvasback

Common goldeneye

Common merganser

Ruddy duck

Clark’s grebe

Ring-billed gull

California gull

Northern harrier

Northern flicker 

House finches

American goldfinch

Dark-eyed junco

Ferruginous hawk

Red-tailed hawk

American kestrel

Bald eagle

Trumpeter swan, which was a vagrant sighting for Delta.

Snow geese flying into the reservoir. 

The snow goose flock

Attendees using scopes at Oxbow Lake.

Sylvia, museum educator

2023 Fall Game Nights Report

Three game nights were held at the Bean Museum this semester and each was a blast! Participants were able to register for this free event and come play a mix of life science related games or games they brought in themselves. Along with free treats, getting to play board games with friends while seated beside a giant elephant and rhino is a pretty neat experience. With popular games like Pandemic and Wingspan, and other lesser known but just as enjoyable games like Planet and Ecosystems, this event is the perfect way to learn a little more about our planet and all its ecological intricacies. With plenty of opportunities to come next semester, this is an event that any board game and science loving individual won’t want to miss out on!

Joanna, museum educator

2023 Fall Clue Murder Mystery Dinner

On November 11th, 2023, 60 of Utah’s finest were invited to an exclusive dinner with Monte L. Bean. Tragically, he would never arrive, as dinner was interrupted with the news that he had been murdered. Our spiffy guests were quick to act and solve the case.

Dining guests, mere moments before the tragedy of the century.

Our guests-turned-detectives being filled in on suspects and beginning their sleuthing.

After intense examination, it was determined that the murdered was committed by none other than Mr. Green in the conservatory with the hippo tusk. Mr. Bean was prepared to expose Mr. Green for his medical malpractice, so the phony physician performed his final operation - murdering Mr. Bean. All detectives that aided in the investigation were rewarded with cake.

The third place team.

The first place team.

Our second place team recognized that justice is reward enough, and chose to flee into the night before they could receive accolades through photography. Or perhaps they had more crimes to fight, more justice to exact. The first and third place teams enjoyed delicious cake and prizes.

Sylvia, museum educator

Fall 2023 Halloween Family Night

Guests of all ages descended upon the Bean Museum once again for a night of spook-tacular, frightful fun!! From an interactive show with surprises from creepy crawlies to fun and educational crafts, there was no shortage of things to do at the Bean's Halloween Family night. 

Both guests and employees donned their most creative costumes to get into the Halloween spirit. Guests learned about spooky animals like bats, owls, frogs, toads, and all sorts of venomous creatures at stations throughout the museum.

All in all, Halloween Family Night was a truly frightening success!

Brooke, museum educator

Fall 2023 Wild Edibles Nature Experienceship Report

The Wild Edibles Nature Experienceship taught by Dr. Tom Smith has become a fast growing favorite among the programs offered by the Bean Life Science Museum. This year's class held on Saturday, October 14th began with a brief overview of the joys of cooking with native ingredients along with a demonstration on how to create homemade chocolate from scratch. This was just the beginning of both an exciting and delicious morning spent exploring the BYU grounds and discovering the plentiful sources of food found here. One of the first and most surprising edibles found here as shown by Dr. Smith are that the flowers of the Day Lily, located all around campus, are not only edible but also rather sweet to the taste. The red berries found on Yew bushes are also quite tasty even if a bit slimy. Remember to spit out the seeds if eaten raw, or cook them into a jam. 

After wandering around the gardens by the Life Science Building and learning about the wide variety of edible plant life found there we returned to the classroom. We were then treated to an array of sweets and treats all created from the plant life we had just observed. We proceeded to taste not only acorn flour muffins and cookies but also crab apple crisp, fresh chocolate, sumac tea, a variety of jams and syrups along with Juniper berry seasoned salmon. All in all the wild edibles class was an overwhelming success.

Joseph Riggs, museum educator