Discovery Trunks

Discovery Trunks

Discovery Trunks bring science alive for students! Carry a Discovery Trunk into your classroom and intrigue learners with the included hands-on materials and inquiry-based lessons. Each trunk contains quality museum specimens and/or supplies, a Teacher's Manual that includes background information and relevant lesson plans, children's literature, animal natural histories (for select trunks) and a program evaluation form.

Discovery Trunks are available for loan by educators (including homeschoolers) in the Ohio-Indiana-Kentucky area.

Discovery Trunks may be borrowed for one week and must be picked up and returned to the Hefner Zoology Museum. The museum is open from 9:00-5:00 weekdays (year-round) and 1:00-4:00 Sundays (September-May).

Use of the Discovery Trunks is FREE. In return, we ask that you take time to complete the program evaluation form[PDF] and return it to the museum.

To reserve a Discovery Trunk, contact Mike Wright at 513.529.6084 or wrightm@muohio.edu.

The following Discovery Trunks are currently available for loan:

Mammals
Twelve mammal sets: Eastern Fox Squirrel, Red Fox, Opossum, Deer, Raccoon, Meadow Vole, Short-tailed Shrew, Big Brown Bat, Stiped Skunk, Eastern Cottontail Rabbit, Groundhog, Deer Mouse. Each set includes some or all of the following items: track replica, scat replica, skull, fur sample, habitat photo, and food photo.
Skulls
Eleven Mammal Skulls: Badger, Bobcat, Bulldog, Coyote, Gray Fox, Groundhog, Opossum, Domestic Pig, Raccoon, Red Fox, Whitetail Deer; Laminated Dichotomous Keys to Mammals of Southwest Ohio; Laminated Labeled Diagrams of a Skull
Fossils
Fifteen sets of Ordovician fossils each with 50 small specimens including brachiopod, bryozoan, gastropods, cephalopod, crinoid stem, petrified wood, and leaves
Real Eggs
Real bird eggs from Atlantic Puffin, Tufted Puffin, Hawaiian Goose, Patagonia Crested Duck, Mandarin Duck, Wood Duck, Hooded Merganser, Rockhopper Penguin, King Penguin, Common Murre, Chinstrap Penguin, North American Ruddy, and Gentoo Penguin
Model Eggs
Wooden model bird eggs representing 10 species from small to large
Puppets
Plush hand puppets: rabbit, box turtle, sea turtle, skunk, black bear, brown bear, beaver, raccoon, squirrel, fox (2)
Food Chains (Vernal Pool or Forest/Meadow)
Laminated photos of producers and consumers to create food chains or webs
Beetle Bark
Elm bark with evidence of elm bark beetle infestation
Turtle Shells
Eight smaller boxes of shells or shell fragments from Blanding’s Turtle, Red-earred Slider, Common Snapping Turtle, and Common Map Turtle

The following additional materials are currently available for loan:

Museum Specimens - you may arrange to borrow select specimens of preserved fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals

Plastic Lizards – for sorting and dichotomous key lessons (has lesson plan)

Plastic Insects - for sorting and dichotomous key lessons (has lesson plan)

African Survival Game –set of large game tiles about animal survival on the African savannah (has lesson plan)

Oranges in Various States of Decomposition

Goldenrod Galls