Coronavirus

Feeling the boredom of sheltering at home because of COVID-19? Meet the manatees!

Wedensday is Manatee Appreciation Day. The Bishop Museum of Science Nature, which hosts a manatee rehabilitation facility, is offering a chance to catch up with manatees despite people being stuck inside because of the the coronavirus pandemic.

At noon, the museum’s Facebook page, will host a Facebook Live focused on manatees.

Manatee care experts will be live to talk about what the day means to both manatees and humans. The live show will feature educators teaching the kids how to make a manatee paper bag puppet from home.

“Whether you find yourself needing to home school your kids or to keep yourself entertained — or both — you can still turn to the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature,” the museum said Wednesday. “Although we’re temporarily closed, you can still connect with us from home on Facebook to explore cool topics like fossils, gardening, astronomy, seashells — and of course, manatees.”

The museum also offers its free Pathways app that can be used for virtual tours of the museum and learn how each museum display is ultimately connected to one another in some weird, wonderful and scientific way.

Weekdays are for a variety of topics, but Saturdays are specifically for the kids. Each Saturday at 3 p.m., the museum hosts a virtual story time.

Thursday at noon on Facebook Live, it’s all about seashells, featuring Becky Facer of the museum’s education department. It’s not just the beautiful outer shells up for discussion, but the animals that call those shells home.

Friday at noon will feature a Facebook Live event all about gardening and Saturday’s 3 p.m. event will feature a reading of “Rosie Revere, Engineer.”

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Mark Young
Bradenton Herald
Breaking News/Real Time Reporter Mark Young began his career in 1996 and has been with the Bradenton Herald since 2014. He has won more than a dozen awards over the years, including the coveted Lucy Morgan Award for In-Depth Reporting from the Florida Press Club and for beat reporting from the Society for Professional Journalists to name a few. His reporting experience is as diverse as the communities he covers. Support my work with a digital subscription
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