4B SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 1996
KU EDITION
LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD
History museum using new methods to explain past
- Visitors will see a few changes this fall at the Kansas University Natural History Museum.
EARL RICHARDSON/JOURNAL-WORLD PHOTO
BY DAVE TOPLIKAR
JOURNAL-WORLD WRITER
The Kansas University Natural History Museum will be a little bit more user-friendier next year.
And it will be a little harder to lose your way, thanks to new signs.
For example, the North American panorama of animals built in 1901 will have new recordings and scripts explaining the animals — in English and Spanish and with natural sounds. Also, a television camera will show what's buzzing in the live bee exhibit, at 50 times the natural size.
"The classic exhibits that are extremely popular are being modified to make them more educational," said Leonard Krishtalka, the museum's director.
During the summer, the museum was putting together recordings for the different stations of the panorama on the museum's fourth floor to explain the plants and animals.
"For example, visitors will be able to press a button and listen to the major features of the Arctic." he said.
Leonard Kristalka, director of the Kansas University Natural History Museum, shows off part of the museum's expansion extra storage for its vast library of specimens.
Krishtalka said visitors should like the new "wayfinding" system.
"They will have a much better idea of what's on every other floor they want to visit," he said. "They'll be able to easily find restrooms, facilities for handicapped visitors and the gift shop.
"One of the complaints we've heard a lot from the public is that the signage is not as good as it can be," he said. "When people are on a certain floor, they don't know what floor they're on, they don't know what's on the floor above or the floor below."
Other areas of the building are buzzing with improvements, too.
The system was designed by Julie Johnson Coats, a KU industrial design student who worked at the museum for four years.
"We are planning to upgrade our live bee exhibit" Kristalka said. "We're going to install a wonderful little camera that will allow visitors to see the bees up to 50 times their natural size. It will be blown up so you will be able to see the hairs of the bees and the bees grooming each other and crawling over each other inside the hive."
That will be fed into the Internet and sent out around the world, he said.
"It will be an educational device for visiting groups and students," Krishtalka said. "The same cameras are being used in research labs to study behavior."
The museum has also begun a five-year project to conduct an architectural survey of Dyche Hall, which will be completed by
its 100th birthday in 2001.
The HABS project, which stands for Historic American Buildings Survey, will be done by the KU School of Architecture, which did a similar project on KU's Spooner Hall.
"It will be a complete architecte-
originals for their lawn and garden," he said.
"It will tural survey of the building that will produce world-class architectural drawings of the building," Kristalka said.
The museum will also have a new reception area in the front to welcome visitors. Visitors will be able to book tours, register for educational classes or contact a research scientist.
"We are planning to upgrade our live bee exhibit. We're going to install a wonderful little camera that will allow visitors to see the bees up to 50 times their natural size. It will be blown up so you will be able to see the hairs of the bees and the bees grooming each other and crawling over each other inside the hive."
The project will cost
— Leonard Kristalka, KU Natural History Museum director
between $50,000 and $80,000.
The building's exterior stonework and one-of-a-kind grotesques on the building's exterior will be repaired. When the 1963 wing was added to the building's north side, four grotesques were removed. Three of those will be added to the latest addition on the west. One of the grotesques has been lost, Kristalka said.
"Anybody who turns in the missing grotesque, the original, will receive a cast of one of the
About 200,000 people visit the museum each year, making it one of the top five most-visited spots in Kansas. The museum also gets a lot of visitors to its four
seasons display of animals along the Kansas River at the Lawrence Riverfront Factory Outlets Sixth and New Hampshire. Efforts will be made for other exhibits in the future. Kristishka said.
For example, while students are
The museum has also applied for a grant to provide information on the Internet for the science curriculums for local fifth-graders that complement trunks now sent to schools that contain hands-on material to look at as they study animals.
studying bats, they can open the trunk and look at the bat material and they can look at the bat information on the Internet and do live two-way teleconferencing so students can ask questions.
The museum will begin setting up an "environmental informatics" laboratory in the fall, which will begin assembling, integrating, displaying and disseminating information about the animals and plants of Kansas. It will be used by land managers, government agencies, corporations and other scientists.
"This involves assembling and integrating information about the five million animals and plants that we house here in the museum, with the information for the more than half a billion animals and plants housed at museums and her宾ariums in the United States," he said.
The Jayhawk Club Card Is Good At Over 150 Local Businesses.
Child care center awaits expansion
- Finding private funding for an expansion of Hilltop Child Development Center at Kansas University continues to prolong the project.
BY JOHN WAKE
JOURNAL-WORLD WRITER
Hilltop will have to put off ongoing plans for an expansion once again.
"With private funding, you're talking about a donor, and we simply haven't found that donor yet," said David Ambler, vice chancellor of student affairs.
What began as a 1994 plan for an expansion seems indefinitely suspended until private funds are found.
"I think you have to find someone who has a connection with the university. I think you need to find someone who has a connection with the need for child care. And I think you need to find someone who might have also gone to school while raising children and needed child care."
Although KU Student Senate members voted for a $2 annual fee through the year 2000 to support Hilltop's expansion, only about $500,000 will be generated by the fee.
Ambler said that amount is obviously not enough.
ning the project," Ambler said. "It's paid every semester, and that includes the summer semester... The money is accumulating, but it is not sufficient to begin construction."
With a waiting list of more than 230 children, a new building would allow Hilltop to serve more children of students, KU faculty and staff members and the community.
The need for a new facility for the nonprofit facility is apparent.
"We encourage people to get on the (waiting) list when their
"The bottom line is that $2 for six years is inadequate for begin-"
"nning."
See Hilltop, page 7B
Sales Partnership
At John Hancock we can show you how to increase your earnings and achieve a more balanced lifestyle. Due to growth in our area, we are looking for someone with a proven track record record and a high degree of professional ethics to serve clientele in the long-term care marketplace.
Working as a part of our team, you will participate in our unique fast start program. This program is a proven, turn-key, training and selling system that enables new associates to quickly gain experience in one of the fastest growing markets in our industry. If the idea of building long-term relationships and greater job satisfaction appeals to you, call us or send a resume;
Pamela A. Swedlund,
Director of Recruiting
6900 College Boulevard, Ste 1000
Overland Park, KS 66211
(913) 345-9090 Phone
(913) 345-0978 FAX
INSURANCE FOR THE UNEXPECTED
INVESTMENTS FOR THE OPPORTUNITIES."
John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company and affiliated companies, Boston, MA 02117. An equal opportunity employer. M/F/D/V.
- Intel Pentium® 120Mhz Chip
* Intel Triton® Chipset
* 16MB RAM
* 1.08 Gb Fast EIDE Hard Drive
* 1.44 Mb Floppy Drive
* 15" NI Color Monitor
* 2MB PCI Video Adapter
* 8 Speed CD Rom
* 16 Bit Sound Card
* MS Windows® '95
* Midower Case
* Windows 95™ 104 keyboard
* Mouse/Speakers/Joystick
* 28,800 Fax/Modem
PENTIUM PROCESSOR POWER
8TH & NEW HAMPSHIRE
THE MARKET PLACE
- FREE' 1st Month Internet Unlimited Time Access
- FREE Technical Support with computer system purchase from Central Data
843-3282