Eight-Legged Encounters
Eight-legged Encounters (ELE) is an interactive, hands-on, art-infused informal science learning event created for families and participants of all ages. Experience the wonders that arachnid biodiversity has to offer as student volunteers from Nebraska’s premier college campuses (UNL, UNK, and UNO) lead you through an experience you will never forget. ELE interactive modules blend unique original artwork, engaging volunteers, and numerous creative games, crafts, and activities to provide hours of fun as participants unwittingly learn about the biodiversity of spiders and their lesser-known relatives.
Try your hand at catching a moth out of the air using your silken lasso like a bolas spider or see how good you are at detecting the vibrations of approaching prey like a trapdoor spider. Build your own tissue paper flower on which your crab spider can forage or create a clay arachnid to take home. Walk through the ‘Path of Predators’ with your activity booklet to collect your stamps, trading cards, and a final prize while simultaneously learning about some of the most bizarre and unique of spider relatives.
Eight-Legged Encounters was developed by the Hebets Laboratory at UNL and has already reached more than 35,000 participants. It has been hosted by the USA Science & Engineering Festival (Washington DC), the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (CO), The Toledo Zoo (OH), the Butterfly Pavilion (CO), and the University of Nebraska State Museum’s Morrill Hall (NE).
