While some kids spent Halloween looking to score the best candy, a small group of children chose to check out something a bit creepier.
McDaniel College students in the Beta Beta Beta Biological Honors Society, in partnership with the Maryland STEM Festival, held a Bones, Bugs and Treats event, where kids got to check out real skeletons and bones, bugs like centipedes and flesh-eating beetles and other spooky, biology-related items.
Siblings Kyle and Lyndsay Menchey, of Manchester, came out Wednesday evening to take a look at the bugs and bones, each dressed in costume.
“It was awesome,” Kyle, 9, who was dressed like Harry Potter, said. Kyle said he got to see a sabertooth tiger skull.
Lyndsay, who was dressed like Hermione Granger, said she got to see a dead fish, and that all of the items were cool and not scary, something Kyle echoed.
“I just like to learn about it,” he said, referring to the items on display.
And for mom Kristine Menchey, the event was a great chance for the kids to learn something new.
“I just thought it was a nice alternative to just trick-or-treating,” she said, though added the family was heading to IHOP next for some Halloween-themed pancakes for the kids.
Menchey said this event was especially great for the kids, because she thinks Lyndsay has an interest in a job one day that deals with biology.
“She has mentioned before a little bit of an interest in the medical field,” she added.
Kids in attendance got the chance Wednesday to move down a line of creepy crawly items, even getting to see flesh-eating beetles in action as they worked on a pair of dead birds. The faint smell of decomposition wafted onto the sidewalk.
For Emily Wixted, a senior at McDaniel studying biology with a minor in secondary education, Wednesday was a chance to share her love of biology with a future generation.
“Since I want to be a teacher, I wanted to come out and teach the kids,” Wixted, of Sykesville, said, later adding, “I think it’s really cool because a lot of the kids don’t get this experience in school [so young].”
Part of the college’s Beta Beta Beta Biological Honors Society’s mission is STEM outreach, Katie Staab, assistant professor of biology at McDaniel, said. Wednesday’s event was a prime example of that.
“It’s a feast for the senses,” she said.
But, it’s also spooky, which makes it fun and perfect for Halloween.
“It doesn’t get much spookier than flesh-eating beetles, right?” Saab added.