Cockroaches, tarantulas, giant millipedes take up residence in Apple Valley school as part of U of M Bell Museum's "BUZ Room"

MEDIA NOTE: Cedar Park Elementary Principal John Garcia, Bell Museum Curator of Education Kevin Williams, teachers and second graders from Cedar Park Elementary will be on hand between 11 a.m. and noon, Tuesday, April 7 to give reporters a preview of The BUZ room.

Contacts: Nina Shepherd, Bell Museum, (612) 624-7389;
Mark Cassutt, University News Service, (612) 624-8038

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (04/01/2009) — What may give parents the creeps, is guaranteed to thrill students in Apple Valley’s Cedar Park STEM Elementary School’s new environmental exhibit opening to students Monday, April 6. The exhibit, called The BUZ (Building Understanding Zone) room, features hundreds of live Madagascar hissing cockroaches, giant African millipedes, tadpoles, ants and fish and a variety of other exotic animals designed to bring the scientific method of inquiry to life.

The exhibit, which is an innovative, hands-on inquiry learning space supported by a federal magnet assistance grant to Cedar Park, was created and installed in partnership with the University of Minnesota’s Bell Museum of Natural History. Students, ranging in grades kindergarten through fifth, will get a chance to care for the exotic creatures for two months, as well as to form hypotheses, carry out inquiry-based experiments ranging from responses to light and the effects of diet on growth and activity levels, and observe the results.

“Cedar Park aims to become a leader in STEM elementary schools in the country,” says principal John Garcia. “The Bell Museum’s contributions to the BUZ room were phenomenal – the museum’s education specialists worked with us in developing the curriculum, then provided the creative know-how to turn our basic ideas into this amazing living laboratory for the students. We anticipate the The BUZ room to boost our students’ interest in the scientific processes of hypothesis, experimentation and observation.”

“Students interact with the animals in a controlled environment which makes learning fun, yet structured,” says Bell Museum curator of education Kevin Williams, whose staff travels hundreds of miles each year with the animals as part of the museum’s “Invertebrates in the Classroom” and “Swimming in the Schools” residencies. The animals are on loan from the Bell Museum and after making their debut at Cedar Park, will return to the Bell Museum for rest and relaxation before traveling to other schools in the metro area.

The Bell Museum, which provides programs and resources based on Minnesota’s science standards and STEM initiatives for more than 20,000 teachers and students each year, is part of the University’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences.