AZ Insect Festival
Many families bring their children to the Arizona Insect Festival, a once a year event that helps people learn more about insects and our world.
The children absolutely love the experience because they love bugs! Bugs are tiny, which makes it easy to interact with them and their behavior is much different from the larger creatures around them.
The festival, which is put on in September (started in 2011), offers children a chance to explore their interest in bugs. From there children can develop a love for science and an understanding of our natural world. This festival has become an important part of children’s growth and development.
Children as young as 6 can volunteer at the festival in order to teach others in the community about insects. “They do everything from help people overcome their fears about holding hissing cockroaches, to directing color projects, to explaining how caterpillar mouth parts work,” Gibson says.
Overall, “an understanding of the insect world actually helps in a wide variety of fields,” says Katy Prudic, an assistant professors in the UA Department of Entomology. Do you have any insect festivals in your area?
