Research Page, Dr. Barbara
Hayford
A. JEWELL SCHOCK MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
The Wayne State College A. Jewell Schock Museum of Natural History houses over 15000 specimens of birds, mammals, invertebrates, plants, and fossils. The Museum was created by Jewel Schock, former Zoologist at Wayne State College. He collected and prepared specimens from Northeast Nebraska over 30 years. Mr. Schock was assisted over the years by numerous students and he used the collections to aid in teaching and science education and outreach.
The Wayne State College Museum of Natural History Mission Statement: The
Mission of the Museum of Natural History is to preserve natural
diversity of life in Northeast Nebraska through maintaining and adding
to our collections, through science education and outreach, and through
actions to conserve and restore natural habitat in the region.
- The
Museum’s science education and outreach activities include
interactive tours of the Museum, classroom visits by Museum staff to
area K-12 schools and volunteer biological monitoring and assessment of
regional streams, wetlands, lakes, and prairies. Museum staff and
other faculty involve WSC students and regional K-12 students on Service-Learning projects, as well.
- The
Museum’s conservation and restoration activities include beta
diversity analysis of spring fed streams to find habitat in need of
restoration or conservation and restoration of regional prairies.
- Museum
collections include over 10,000 plant specimens, 3000 invertebrate
specimens, 1700 vertebrate specimens excluding birds, and 1300 bird
specimens many of which were collected and prepared by Wayne Mollhoff. Once a database of collection identifications and site information is completed it will be made available via this web page.