![Former Governor Baker,Former Lieutenant Governor Polito and Fred Venne](/system/files/styles/fs_370_wide/private/2023-10/Governor%20Baker%2C%20Lieutenant%20Governor%20Polito%20and%20Fred%20Venne.jpg?itok=q6B-kt3a&__=1697632457)
One Meter Long, 40 Kilos, Sharp Teeth, and Feathers: The New Massachusetts State Dinosaur
Presented by Fred Venne, Museum Educator at Beneski Museum of Natural History, and Moderated by Annika Baldwin ’24
Alumni and friends enjoyed a night at the museum for One Meter Long, 40 Kilos, Sharp Teeth, and Feathers: The New Massachusetts State Dinosaur, a live, virtual event presented by Fred Venne, museum educator at Beneski Museum of Natural History.
Fred Venne is the museum educator at Beneski Museum of Natural History, part of a collaborative network of 10 museums located in and around Amherst. Fred has more than 30 years of experience in educational administration, science education, museum education and informal science learning. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts with degrees in business, educational leadership and educational administration, Mr. Venne began his career as a non-profit agency director where he redeveloped the vision, mission, and goals of a turn-of-the-century organization with a long history of serving immigrant populations.
Mr. Venne came to the Beneski Museum of Natural History in 2011 to help re-imagine its educational and outreach work. One critical aspect of this re-imagined effort involved multiple partnerships with educational, cultural, media and research organizations. Numerous on- and off-site projects have evolved as part of this partnership work. One recent project involved a successful effort to select a state dinosaur for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Beneski Museum worked with a statewide team of paleontologists, dinosaur enthusiasts, museum experts, state legislators and more than 30,000 members of our Massachusetts community over two years to move this effort forward.
Over the years, Mr. Venne’s work included serving as the CEO and program developer for several non-profits, consultant to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, adjunct faculty with Fitchburg State University, science teacher, science curriculum developer and school principal. Fred has presented at local and national conferences on the subjects of “Systemic Change,” “Universal Design for Learning (UDL),” and “Inquiry Based Science.”
Annika Baldwin ’24 is a senior biology major from Princeton, New Jersey. She has been a docent at the Beneski Museum of Natural History since 2020 and was a summer intern in 2021. Her favorite part of working at the museum is getting to talk to all the ultra-enthusiastic kids with a passion for dinosaurs who come to visit the exhibits. Annika also works as a research assistant in the biology department on a project about eastward black bear migration in Massachusetts and is currently working on painting a field guide to birds of Amherst College.