This week, OLogy, the American Museum of Natural History’s science website for kids, is offering a new OLogy Challenge, asking participants to draw a dinosaur and learn how artists create lifelike drawings of extinct animals.

Winning entries will be featured on the website.

Need more Dino fun? Take a tour of the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs, where some of the Museum’s most iconic displays—including the Tyrannosaurus rex, Allosaurus, and Apatosaurus fossils—are exhibited.

While the American Museum of Natural History is closed during the COVID-19 outbreak, you can still enjoy the Museum’s exhibits and online offerings, from materials for families and teachers to virtual tours, videos, games, digital backgrounds, and more.

Here are more programming highlights from the Museum this week:

• Scientists at Home: The Deep Ocean:  Watch as deep-sea evolutionary biologist and Museum Research Associate Mercer Brugler shows captivating photos and footage from the ocean depths.
  
  The event is part of Scientists at Home, a new program that offers students and families a unique opportunity to interact with Museum scientists and learn about the animals, ecosystems, and natural phenomena they study.

• Birds of Prey Hatchlings Watch Party: This Friday, May 15, at 1:30 pm ET, join Museum ornithologist Paul Sweet and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s experts Charles Eldermine and Ben Waters for a live YouTube Watch Party to see eggs, nests, and hatchlings of birds of prey, including Osprey, Barred Owls, and Red-tailed Hawks.
  
  Sweet will offer a look at some of the eggs in the Museum’s collection and answer questions live alongside the Cornell Lab’s experts.

• New Research on Identifying Invasive Hornets: There are 22 species of hornets in the genus Vespa, the biggest of which is the Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia), which has also been referred to in recent news reports as the “murder hornet.”
  
  Because invasive hornets can pose ecological, agricultural, and health threats, the ability to identify them is important. However, even hornets of the same species can look different, making it difficult to tell them apart from native species.
  
  Museum Curator James Carpenter, chair of the Division of Invertebrate Zoology, was part of a scientific team that recently created a detailed, illustrated key that could help identify hornet species and be used to keep an eye out for invasive species. The key is published in the journal Insect Systematics and Diversity.

• Virtual Tours: Opportunities to visit the Museum from home are also available through a virtual tour on Google Arts and Culture, as well as through previously recorded guided tours of the Museum’s halls and collections that will be featured on Facebook on Tuesdays at 2 pm ET.

Other educational resources from the Museum include

• The OLogy science website, where kids and families can find fun activities and games to learn about the natural world around them - www.amnh.org/explore/ology

• Online curriculum collections for teachers, parents, and students on topics ranging from dinosaurs to river ecology - www.amnh.org/learn-teach/curriculum-collections

• Learning opportunities for all ages through Museum courses on:
  - Coursera - www.coursera.org/amnh
  - Khan Academy - www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/amnh
  - Kahoot - www.kahoot.com/explore/collections/science-american-museum-natural-history/

• Opportunities to visit virtually through the Museum’s YouTube channel, which features videos that take audiences into the institution’s world-class collections and into the field with researchers. - www.youtube.com/user/AMNHorg

A wealth of other online resources available on AMNH’s website, visit -  www.amnh.org/explore

Facebook - www.facebook.com/naturalhistory
Twitter - www.twitter.com/AMNH
Instagram - www.instagram.com/AMNH