Prairies Youth Center hosts Nature Week/Creative Expressions event Published June 14, 2016 By Laura McGowan 88 Air Base Wing Public Affairs WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- -- Nature Week/Creative Expressions at the Prairies Youth Center was held June 6-10 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The goal of the event was to teach children to explore how they could create art from nature, specifically with donated dried insect specimens and art supplies. During the day, speakers provided an overview of career fields to approximately 30 school age kids that might be interested in becoming entomologists. The kids got to see, touch and take photos of a large rhino beetle pet. They also got to see the food beetles eat - beetle jelly. There was a barrage of questions from the kids and answers from experts including: "Does he bite?" "No." "Can we pick him up?" "No, even though he doesn't bite, his claws are very sharp." "Can we eat some of the beetle jelly?" "No. It probably wouldn't hurt you, because it's made of fruit juices, seaweed, sugar/fructose." The children were divided into three groups, some looking at specimens through a microscope and drawing pictures of different insects; another group made intricate dioramas with insect specimens; and lastly a smaller group made an acrylic painting with several specimens. "The youth really enjoyed seeing all the insects that [were] brought in and learned a lot of interesting facts related to Entomology," said Joel McKeever, Prairies Youth Center programs assistant. From the thank you's, hugs and beautiful insect art, the Nature Week's creative expressions was a hit!