Education and Outreach
The Division of Arthropods provides educational opportunities for UNM and the greater public community. The Curator, Dr. Kelly Miller teaches courses at UNM relating to arthropods and evolution. Dr. Miller also leads arthropod collecting trips with graduate and undergraduate to locations around the world including Africa, Asia, Central and South America and Australia. The Collection Manager, Dr. Lightfoot, provides arthropod collection based research assistance to UNM professors, graduate students and undergraduate students, including arthropod identification, museum specimen preparation and information database construction, and field sampling and collection methods. The Collection Manager also participates in various regional public biotic surveys and education events such as bioblitzs and other similar events, and contributions to UNM Press regional field guides such as Plants and Animals of the Middle Rio Grande Bosque and A Field Guide to the Sandia Mountains.
The Division of Arthropods staff answers many e-mail and phone inquiries from the general public about insects and other arthropods, and they also assist other regional institutions and public service agencies relative to arthropod information needs. Division staff host public school tours and inform students about arthropods and about the function of the Museum of Southwestern Biology.
Educational tools that may be found on this web site include Internet links to other arthropod related web sites and photographic information accounts of common and interesting arthropods of New Mexico.