NEWS FROM THE GREAT VALLEY MUSEUM
FALL 2015
MODESTO JUNIOR COLLEGE - YOSEMITE COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT
VOL. 32, No. 3
SIXTH ANNUAL WILD PLANET DAY
COMING SOON
ild Planet Day is a science-filled, fun festival for students
of all ages. This fundraiser for the Great Valley Museum will be
held at the museum and the Science Community Center (which
is the name for the entire science building), located on the
West Campus of MJC. This year, Enochs High School’s CSI
group will present a number of hands-on activities. There will
be a Zombie room where blood spatter techniques and zombie
DNA testing will take place. Woodsy Owl and McGruff the
Crime Dog will be circulating through the lobby where several
government and non-profit groups will demonstrate ideas on
how to save water. Outside, students can build a blue bird box
to take home,
play
with
giant
bubbles, see animals
from the Modesto
Junior
College
Agriculture
department
or
examine a fire truck
up close.
Mike
Sutton will bring his
55 native reptiles
and Sasha Rice of insect displays, will teach how to avoid Black
Widow Spiders. The Astronomy Club will be up on the observation
roof looking at the sun through a solar telescope. Dr. Al Chemist will be sharing his fantastic chemical
demonstration. There will be many more activities available. This will be quite a busy, educational day of
science. Don’t miss the fun!
W
Saturday, October 10th, 2015 10am-3pm
Event Admission:
$8/person $20/family (up to 6 people) under 4yrs/free
Special Planetarium admission: $4.00/person
Please check our website for more information at mjc.edu/gvm
Location: Great Valley Museum
West Campus, Modesto Junior College
Science Community Center
For more information: call (209) 575-6196
THE AMAZING WORLD OF SCIENCE & NATURAL HISTORY
Live Animal & Bookworm Story Telling
Story hour during the school year is geared to 3-4 year olds. The
animal shows are suitable for everyone but very small children, who
are welcomed if supervised by their parents. All stories and shows
start at 10 am, last about an hour, and are free with paid admission.
Sept 4
Sept 18
Oct 2
Oct 16
Nov 6
Nov 20
Dec 4
Dec 18
Summer Insects
Summer Animals
Spiders & Bats
Bats & Spiders
Fabulous Fall
Squirrels and Other Fall Animal
Bears and Hibernation
Winter Anima
CONTACT US
209-575-6196
209-575-6466 fax
[email protected]
www.mjc.edu/gvm
MUSEUM PUBLIC HOURS
Sunday
closed
Monday
closed
Tuesday
12 pm – 4 pm
Wednesday
12 pm – 4 pm
Thursday
12 pm – 4 pm
Friday
9 am - 4 pm
Saturday
9 am- 4 pm
Modesto Junior College
West Campus
By Molly Flemate; Museum Specialist Science Community Center
he 2015-2016 school year begins with active traveling teachers: Loralee 2201 Blue Gum Ave
Crawford, Karin Mettler, Kelly Skultety, Beth McNett, Erin Thompson, Kathy Modesto, CA 95358
McKinnon and Michael McKibbon. Traveling teachers visit elementary schools
Public parking on the MJC
through secondary classrooms at public, private, charter, and home school sites.
campus is $2 Monday –
Based out of the Science Community
Friday. Please bring small
Center; Traveling Teacher serve throughout
bills. Parking is free after 5
Stanislaus County, as well as, neighboring areas
pm on Fridays, and all day on
in San Joaquin, Tuolumne and Merced Counties.
weekends.
The museum offers over 38 science,
nature, math and cultural programs. As we state
PLANETARIUM
in our Education Resource Guide, the Great
Tickets available at the GVM
Valley Museum has a long history of assisting
Nature Shop. Not
classroom teachers. Our expertise is in bringing
recommended for children
science and nature to their students. We are
under 4 years of age.
flexible and mobile and we can provide these
Limited to the first 100
programs at our museum, parks, classrooms or
guests. Please arrive 10-15
other educational sites.
minutes prior to scheduled
GVM is thankful to our partners who
show time as the doors to
support these outreach programs. We will be
the Planetarium DO NOT
featuring our Traveling Teachers in this corner
OPEN once the program has
as well as the work we are doing with our
begun.
partners. The following is a small list of our partners: Modesto Irrigation
District, Tuolumne River Trust, Omega Nu, Sylvan Improvement Club, Delta
Check our web page,
Kappa Gamma-Epsilon Nu Chapter, Stanislaus County Retired Teachers, and
www.mjc.edu/gvm for
North Modesto Kiwanis.
The museum began as an educational outreach organization of Modesto current programs, times, and
pricing.
Junior College using a trailer filled with science lessons to present to the areas
elementary schools and we have maintained an active traveling teacher program
ever since when we visited the schools.
Traveling Teacher Corner
T
We are always looking for more Traveling Teachers, come by and apply!
You can find the Education Resource Guide on our web site: www.mjc.edu/gvm
2
KNOW YOUR GREAT VALLEY FOSSILS:
THE 6-FOOT LONG SABER-TOOTH SALMON COMING SOON!
hat does Mt. Shasta have to do with the Great
Valley and a six (6) foot long Saber-toothed Salmon?
Let’s find out! Mt. Shasta is a big mountain. A really big
mountain. Reaching an elevation of 14,179 ft.
(4,322 m), and rising nearly 10,000 ft. (~3,000 m)
above the surrounding terrain, it has a volume of
around 100 cubic miles. As such, it is the biggest
volcano in the Cascades volcanic arc, and probably is on
the short list of largest stratovolcanoes in the world
(shield volcanoes like those of the Hawaiian Islands
have a different origin and are much, much larger). The volcano is the surface manifestation of the
sinking of the Pacific lithospheric plate beneath the North American continent along the Cascadia
Subduction Zone. As the plate sinks deeper, superheated water is liberated, which lowers the melting
point of the deep rocks, forming magma chambers that sometimes erupt at the surface.
One would think that this massive edifice would be made of lava and volcanic ash, but a large
percentage of the volcano is actually composed of...mud. Simple mud. Well, more properly, mudflow
deposits, or lahars, as they are called by geologists. This isn't the kind of mud you find on the bottom
of a lake or the sea. It was mud born of violence. The mud includes massive boulders, showing that the
formation of the lahars involved the rapid melting of snow and ice during violent eruptions. The
mixing of water, ash and rock fragments forms a slurry that moves quickly down the flanks of the
volcano. To humans, they are dangerous. A lahar in Colombia in 1985 killed around 23,000 people in a
matter of minutes.
Driving through the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in places like Knight's Ferry or LaGrange,
just northwest of the Yosemite National Park region, it's hard to visualize the violent past of this
landscape. The gentle slopes belie the intensity of the floods and flows that carried the boulders for
forty or fifty miles from the volcanic centers that once existed near the crest around Sonora Pass and
the Dardanelles. The rocks are called the Mehrten Formation, and they were deposited around 5 to 7
million years ago, when the subduction zone was still active at this latitude. Similar mudflow deposits
cover much of the northern Sierra Nevada. If you were on top of the Great Valley Museum’s building 7
million years ago, you would have seen massive volcanoes off to the east!
Of course, the volcanoes weren't always erupting. Decades or centuries may have passed
between eruptions, and the tattered ecosystem would have recovered quickly. Petrified wood has
been found in the formation, and fossils of horses, camels, and other animals that lived on the river
floodplains emerging from the mountains above. A few years ago I became aware of some of the most
unique fossil species to be discovered in the formation, gigantic tortoises, and six-foot-long
salmon...with fangs! The Sabertooth Salmon (Oncorhynchus rastrosus) once swam the ancestral
Stanislaus and Tuolumne Rivers, right here in our own back yard.
A former student of Modesto Junior College (and current geology major at CSU Stanislaus),
Jake Biewer, has been working this summer on a new exhibit at the Great Valley Museum highlighting
his research on the Sabertooth Salmon and the large tortoises of the Mehrten Formation.
BE SURE TO WATCH FOR THIS NEW FOSSIL EXHIBIT------COMING TO THE GVM THIS FALL
W
Garry Hayes has taught geology at Modesto Junior College since 1988, and writes a blog about geology
here in Central California and in the rest of the world. You can read it at geotripper.blogspot.com
3
MAPS SPEAKERS FOR FALL 2015
4
INTRODUCING A NEW AFTERNOON CLASS:
HANDS-ON WEDNESDAYS!
ntroducing Hands-On Wednesday, an after school program for elementary school children. This exciting new
class will be held the first Wednesday of the month from 3:30-4:30. In general, Hands-On Wednesday will
expand on themes from the Great Valley Museum’s rotating exhibits. Museum staff will engage young learners
with experiments, demonstrations and touchable objects to increase curiosity and generate interest in further
discovery. Your child can expect something different and exciting for each Hands-On Wednesday class.
For more information and to enroll call 575-6196 or visit our website, www.mjc.edu/gvm.
I
MANAGER’S NOTES
fter just a few months, the museum has successfully adjusted into our new west campus location. We
A
expect our new collections/curation building to open by October. We will be having a members’ viewing
evening, so be sure to watch your inbox. We are one step closer to starting the Outdoor Education Area (the
field north of the SCC). An architect has been chosen with a specialty in landscaping. Inside the museum,
finishing touches have been added to several of the exhibits which include new vegetation and animals. Our
long awaited beavers will soon be arriving in the valley riparian display as well.
Our planetarium has acquired a new program from the California Academy of Sciences called
EARTHQUAKE. Check our website e for current show times. We will also be running special holiday laser
shows this fall. The 50-minute Fright Light laser show will be run on Halloween, which falls on a Saturday this
year. This show has classics such as Thriller, Monster Mash, and other “spooky” favorites. The 40-minute
Laser Holidays show will on Saturday, November 27. It has holiday motifs set to music. Please check our
website for the actual playlists.
We have our first exhibit scheduled to open in September. This “Fossil Exhibit“ is being curated in part
by Jake Biewer, a former MJC geology student now studying at Stanislaus State with Dr. Julia Sankey. It will
focus on fossils found right here in our Great Central Valley!
We had a fantastic response to Jeff Jardine’s recent article in the Modesto Bee. So far, over a dozen new
volunteers are scheduled to take the docent training on October 12th, 19th, and 26th from 9:30am - 11:30am.
Please call the museum if you would like to attend docent training, as we have limited seating.
Membership
Categories
Here is how you benefit by becoming a member:
*Free admission to the Museum
*10% discount in the Museum Store
*Discounts on class and program fees
*Valley Views Newsletter
*Resource materials for checkout
*Discounts on Planetarium Shows
$40
Senior
$50
Individual
Name _______________________________________________________
$120
Family
Address ___________________________________________________________
$250
School
City, State, Zip ______________________________________________________
$300
Other Groups
Phone ____________________________________________________________
Business
$500
Small Business
$1000
Standard
$2000
Premium
$5000
Elite
E-mail ____________________________________________________________
Check payable to the Great Valley Museum, 2201 Blue Gum Ave., Modesto, CA 95358
Visa/Master Card accepted online or inside the Nature Shop
www.mjc.edu/gvm
5
GIFTS, MEMORIALS, PERIODIC TABLE
SPONSORS AND NEW MEMBERS
The Great Valley Museum is a nice way to remember a relative or friend, or to acknowledge a birthday,
anniversary or other special occasion. You can make a memorial contribution to the Great Valley
Museum in someone’s name or purchase a periodic element in their name. We acknowledge your gift
in three ways: with a note to you, a note to the family or honoree saying that you have made a
donation and specifying the occasion, and with a listing in Valley Views. Finally, to leave a lasting
impact for future generations, please consider including the Great Valley Museum in your will or estate
plan.
New Members
Donations
Delta Kappa Gamma
Epsilon Nu Chapter
Roger Gohring
John Flemate
Ted Neu
Susan Shewmaker
Periodic Table
Sponsors
Martha Carter-Bhatti
Stan Elems in honor of
Drs JW & Mary
McKibben
The Delta Kappa Gamma committee
FALL SCIENCE COLLOQUIUMS
3-4pm Rm115,
Science Community Center, MJC West Campus
Walter Ward, Stanislaus County Water Manager, "The Science
Behind a Sustainable Water Supply for Stanislaus County
Sept. 16
Craig Vierra, Ph.D., UOP, “Spider Silk: A Next Generation
Biomaterial with Outstanding Properties”
Sept. 23
Horacio Ferriz, CSU Stanislaus Geophysicist, "Looking into the
Earth. The Use of Geophysics to Assess Aquifer Depletion
And Flood Control Levees”
Sept. 30 Maya Leiva, PharmD, RPh, A pharmacy topic TBA
Oct. 7
Elizabeth McInnes, MJC Botanist, “Darwin and his Wicked Dear
Little Drosera”
Oct. 14
Denise Godbout-Avant, “Hearing Health and Cochlear Implants”
Oct. 21
John Seager, President, Population Connection, “Human
Population”
Oct. 26. TBA
Nov. 4
Dale Phillips, MJC Computer Science, “How Does a Computer
Work It’s Magic
Nov. 11
No SC- Veteran’s Day Holiday
Nov. 18
Jody Strait, MJC Student, “Conservatives and Fighting Global
Warming: An Either /Or?”
Nov. 25
No SC- Thanksgiving Holiday
Dec. 2
Des Orsinelli, Engineer, “A Light Look at Reversing a Warming
Planet”
Martha Carter-Bhatti
Marlene Cowan
Pat Fisher
Rita Rancaño
Alexandra “Sandy” Gallardo
Cristian Ciotau
Dean Brewer Family
Robin Dubbs
Linda Hoile
Josh Bridegroom
Margery Neder
Cheri Enrique
Phyllis Bordona Family
Keif Samulski & Shawna
Escobar
Frieda Rector
Sept 9
6
Roger Gohring and one of his
many creations
F A L L
2 0 1 5 C A L E N D A R F O R T H E G R E A T V A L L EY M U S E U M
For full details of events mentioned here call the museum at (209) 575-6196 or www.mjc.edu/gvm
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
1
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
2 Hands- On Class
3:30 – 4:30 PM
3
4
Science Night (extended
evening hours)
*Bookworms 10am
*Planetarium Shows
5
11
12
---------------------- Open 12 pm – 4 pm -----------------------------
SEPTEMBER
6
7
8
9
Science Colloquium
3 PM,
10
---------------------- Open 12 pm – 4 pm -----------------------------
13
14
15
16
Science Colloquium
3 PM
17
21
22
23
Science
Colloquium 3 PM
24
28
29
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
Open: 9am - 4pm
19 Open: 9am - 4pm
*Bookworms 10am
Planetarium Shows
*Planetarium Shows
*MAPS 7:30pm, Sierra Hall 132
25
26
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
1
2 Open: 9 am-4 pm
3
---------------------- Open 12 pm – 4 pm -----------------------------
27
Open: 9am - 4pm
Planetarium Shows
18
---------------------- Open 12 pm – 4 pm -----------------------------
20
Open: 9am - 4pm
*Animal Show 10am
*Planetarium Shows
Open: 9am - 4pm
Planetarium Shows
Open: 9am - 4pm
*Animal Show 10am
*Planetarium Shows
Open: 9am - 4pm
Planetarium Shows
30 Science
Colloquium 3 PM
---------------------- Open 12 pm – 4 pm ----------------------------WEDNESDAY
OCTOBER
* Bookworms 10 am
*Science Night (extended
evening hours)
*Planetarium Shows
* MAPS 7:30pm, Sierra Hall 132
4
5
6
7
Hands- On Class
3:30 – 4:30 PM
*Science Colloquium
3pm
8
9
Open: 9am - 4pm
*Animal Show 10am
*Planetarium Shows
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Open: 9am - 4pm
*Bookworms 10am
*Planetarium Shows
*M.A.P.S. 7:30p
17
23
24
Science
Colloquium 3 PM
---------------------- Open 12 pm – 4 pm -----------------------------
18
19
20
21
Science Colloquium
22
Open: 9am - 4pm
*Animal Show 10am
3 PM
---------------------- Open 12 pm – 4 pm -----------------------------
25
26
27
28
Science Colloquium
29
---------------------- Open 12 pm – 4 pm ----------------------------SUNDAY
1
MONDAY
2
TUESDAY
3
WEDNESDAY
9
10
16
17
23
24
Open: 9am – 4pm
*Animal Show 10am
*Planetarium Shows
31
Open: 9am - 4pm
Special Halloween
Laser Shows
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
5
6
Science Night
*Open: 9am - 4pm &
Extended evening hours
*Bookworms 10am
*Planetarium Shows
7
11 Veterans Day
12
13
Open: 9am - 4pm
Animal Show 10am
14
19
20
Open: 9am - 4pm
*Bookworms 10am
*M.A.P.S. 7:30pm
21
27
28
18
Science
Colloquium 3 PM
---------------------- Open 12 pm – 4 pm -----------------------------
22
Open: 9am - 4pm
Planetarium Shows
THURSDAY
CLOSED
15
Open: 9am - 4pm
Planetarium Shows
*Hands-On Class
3:30-4:30 PM
*Science Colloquium
3pm
4
---------------------- Open 12 pm – 4 pm -----------------------------
8
Wild Planet Day
10am – 4pm
*Planetarium Shows
30
3 PM
NOVEMBER
Open: 9am - 4pm
Planetarium Shows
25
NO Science Colloquium
26 CLOSED
Happy
Thanksgiving
CLOSED
Open: 9am - 4pm
Planetarium Shows
Open: 9am - 4pm
Planetarium Shows
Open: 9am -4pm
Planetarium Shows
Open: 9am - 4pm
Planetarium Shows
MUSEUM PUBLIC HOURS
Tuesday - Thursday 12 pm – 4pm
Friday - Saturday: 9 am – 4pm
$2
Parking Monday - Friday:
$5
$3
$15
$4
free
MUSEUM ADMISSION:
12 & Over:
Children 3-12:
Family (up to 6 members):
Age 55+:
MJC students w/ID:
Call for group prices
MUSEUM BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Elizabeth McInnes
Deborah Martin
Denise Vieira
Roger Gohring
Jeff Kahler, DVM
Diana Loomis
Joyce Stetler
Jodi Karambela
Jackie Wimberley
Tim Fisher
James McAndrews
Anne DeMartini
President:
Vice President:
Treasurer:
Secretary:
YCCD Board Representative:
CONNECT WITH US:
Phone: (209) 575-6196
Fax: (209) 575-6466
Email: [email protected]
Email Traveling Teachers:
[email protected]
Web Page: www.mjc.edu/gvm
Like us on Facebook
Twitter: @gvmatmjc
Valley Views designed by Museum Staff
MUSEUM STAFF
Dean Science, Math and Engineering: Dr. Brian Sanders
Museum Interim Manager: Arnold Chavez
Museum Specialist-Outreach Education: Molly Flemate
Museum Curator: Stan Elems
FALL 2015
Current Resident or
Yosemite Community College District
Great Valley Museum at Modesto Junior College
MJC West Campus
2201 Blue Gum Ave.
1st Floor of Science Community Center
Modesto, CA 95358
Non- Profit
Organization
U.S. Postage
PAID
Permit No.25
Modesto, CA