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Northeast Texas Childrens Museum Grand Opening

BJ Kirkpatrick News 10/15/201907/23/2025

The time is here!

The streets have been painted; Amazing Airways is installed; and the businesses are ready to open. Children are now needed to complete the scene at the Northeast Texas Children’s Museum. Children and families are invited to the Grand Opening on Saturday, October 26 from 9:30 to 4:30 at 100 Maple Street.

The Grand Opening will feature a new look for Main Street with detailed replicas of many local businesses. As Project Manager and Designer, Beckey Thompson has created a professional look with color detail for each of the businesses on Main Street. These businesses include Hunt Regional Healthcare, Family Smiles Dental, Brookshire’s Grocery, Lone Star Eatery, Commerce Veterinary Clinic, and the playhouse sponsored by Mandy Stewart with RE-Max and Cliff and Brooke Jones with Castlerock Customer Builders. “With the expertise of Beckey Thompson as Project Manager and Designer, the Children’s Museum’s Main Street reflects a professional and talented builder. I do not know how or what would have been accomplished without Beckey “, said Sharline Freeman, Executive Director of the Northeast Texas Children’s Museum.

Visitors can look forward to experiencing Amazing Airways, a large exhibit sponsored by Charles Schwab of Greenville. Amazing Airways is an exhibit that is found in only fifty-five museums throughout the United States. The internationally acclaimed original Amazing Airways is an impressive pneumatic air system that will engage children and adults as they explore the properties of air.

Andrew Baldwin of Terrell, Texas, is enjoying the new Amazing Airways exhibit at the new site of the Northeast Texas Children’s Museum.

Other new exhibits and refurbished previous exhibits will provide a creative, hands-on experience for all visitors. Main Street will feature a road and gas station. Each business on Main Street has become a four-sided building with a high level of realism in the design. New furnishings create a new experience for children. The Grand Opening on October 26 brings a new era to the Northeast Texas Children’s Museum. One of the best children’s venues in the state can now be found in Commerce, Texas.

Texas’ Fourth Annual Pollinator BioBlitz

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department | Austin Texas

For the next two weeks, Texans are invited to take part in the fourth statewide Pollinator BioBlitz. The goal of the BioBlitz, which runs from Oct. 4-20, is to raise awareness of the diversity and importance of pollinators while bringing greater attention to the critical habitat needs of monarchs and native pollinators across the state.

In support of the event, organizations and sites around the state will be hosting a variety of events to get people outdoors to observe pollinators of all types in yards, natural areas, gardens, parks and community centers. Of course, you don’t have to visit a particular site to participate; your very own yard or green space will do.

Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge will be holding Butterfly Garden Walks on October 5th and October 19th. Butterflies and all Texas pollinators have suffered during this hot summer. Now that the weather has begun to cool a bit, the pollinators are out feeding on fall blooming flowers.

“Documented declines in insect populations, particularly pollinators, have brought to the forefront the need to better understand these species and the support they provide Texas rangelands, agriculture and native ecosystems,” says Ross Winton, invertebrate biologist for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. “Texas is home to thousands of pollinator species from the iconic monarch down to the smallest solitary bee.”

Citizen scientists involved in projects like this help us gather data on Texas species and the plant communities they are connected to, Winton adds. This helps us learn not only what we have in our great state but also what we need to strive to protect.

The BioBlitz is designed to be fun for all ages, with no experience required. Participants are simply asked to look for pollinators, such as bees, butterflies and moths, as well as nectar-producing plants; photograph or take video of them; and share their discoveries online via Instagram or Facebook using the hashtag #TXPollinators. Plant and insect species may be difficult to identify, so observers are encouraged to post what they know. For example, “Striped bee on Turk’s cap in Mission, Texas” is fine.

Participants are encouraged to take it a step further and help increase the amount of data collected during the peak of fall migration by becoming a citizen scientist. Anyone can sign up and record their observations through the iNaturalist application on their phones or home computers. All pollinators and flowering plants posted between Oct. 4-20 will automatically be included in the 2019 Texas Pollinator BioBlitz Project at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/2019-texas-pollinator-bioblitz. There is no cost to participate and the only tools needed are a camera or smartphone and internet access.

In addition to the monarch, 30 species of pollinators have been designated as “Species of Greatest Conservation Need” by TPWD. Native butterflies, bees, moths, bats, hummingbirds, wasps, flies and beetles are essential to healthy ecosystems and sustain native plant species, human food crops and crops for livestock.

To learn more about the importance of pollinators, sign up to be counted, and locate events across the state, visit the Texas Pollinator BioBlitz website at www.tpwd.texas.gov/pollinators.

Participants can also sign up for weekly email updates during the event that will add to the excitement as everyone works together to increase awareness of our pollinators and the availability of their habitat.

Join event partners TPWD, National Butterfly Center, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, National Wildlife Federation, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as we celebrate the importance of pollinators.

It’s easy to get involved. Individuals and families, schools and clubs are all asked to join, observe, identify and share. At this time of year, cooler temperatures across the state also alert bees to eat as much as they can before hibernation begins, so it’s the perfect time to photograph, post and record the insects you see while enjoying the great outdoors.

To view a video news report about the Pollinator BioBlitz, visit https://youtu.be/IamRvnr7218.

Fall Equinox at Austin College Idea Center

BJ Kirkpatrick Austin College, News 09/22/201907/23/2025Science

Texoma News Fall Equinox at Austin College

Fall Equinox to Arrive with Movement of Sun

A carefully designed but ancient feature of Austin College’s IDEA Center will be “in action” Monday, September 23, as the precise arrival of the Fall Equinox is marked. The IDEA Center itself serves as a large astronomical observatory that displays the movement of the Sun through the gnomon hole in the roof across the building’s Oscar C. Page Atrium to mark the winter and summer solstices and the vernal and autumnal equinoxes along a meridian line built into the floor.

The public is invited to join the gathering of students and faculty from 1 to 1:25 p.m. to watch the progress of the Sun as it casts an image on the atrium floor and aligns with the equinox marker at exactly “solar noon,” (1:18 p.m. CDT). The IDEA Center is located on the Austin College campus at 1108 E. Richards Street in Sherman. The event is free and open to the public, weather and sunlight permitting. Sunlight is required for the event.

The annual fall and spring equinoxes are the two days when the sun shines directly on the equator and provides nearly equal daylight and night hours. A gnomon hole is an ancient device originally used to compute time.

Dr. David Baker, professor of physics, director of the Adams Observatory, and author of the award-winning book The 50 Most Extreme Places in the Solar System, will provide comments and instruction during the event.

“Watching the sunbeam march across the floor of the Page Atrium and arrive at the equinox marker is magical,” said Baker. “It marks a significant moment in time, one that has been observed by many civilizations throughout history. The solar observatory at Austin College does it in a special way. It’s worth seeing.”

The atrium was constructed so that the sunbeams of the fall and spring equinoxes fall on the Chinese symbol for the Sun in recognition of Asian contributions to knowledge of the universe. The summer solstice is marked by the Greek/Macedonian symbol for the Sun to symbolize the contributions of the West in the understanding of the universe, and the winter solstice is marked by the Mayan symbol to recognize Native American contributions.

Austin College, a private national liberal arts college located north of Dallas in Sherman, Texas, has earned a reputation for excellence in academic preparation, international study, pre-professional foundations, leadership development, committed faculty, and hands-on, adventurous learning opportunities. One of 40 schools profiled in Loren Pope’s influential book Colleges That Change Lives, Austin College boasts a welcoming community that embraces diversity and individuality, with more than 50 percent of students identifying as persons of color. The residential student body of approximately 1,300 students and more than 100 expert faculty members allow a 13:1 student-faculty ratio and personalized attention. This year, the campus recognizes 100 years of co-education and has had several opportunities to recognize the history of women and accomplishments of current alumnae. Austin College is related by covenant to the Presbyterian Church (USA) and cultivates an inclusive atmosphere that supports students’ faith journeys regardless of religious tradition. Founded in 1849, the College is the oldest institution of higher education in Texas operating under original name and charter.