DAVIS-A newly funded grant awarded to the R. M. Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis, will enable teachers and students to study such insects as Madagascar hissing cockroaches, Vietnamese walking sticks, blue death feigning beetles and Chilean rose-haired tarantulas.

The grant, from Teichert Foundation of Teichert, Inc., a Sacramento-based construction company, will fund two workshops for teachers and two children's entomology camps this summer, said entomologist Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum.

"The insects that we will focus on during the teachers' workshops and kids' camps are those that we can touch," Kimsey said.

Danielle DuCharme, coordinator of education and outreach at the Bohart Museum, submitted the grant proposal to fund specialized training programs that meet California science teaching standards.

"Fred Teichert, executive director of the Teichert Foundation, visited the Bohart Museum in February and spent a long time looking at our collections," DuCharme said. "We are very pleased that the Teichert Foundation funded our request in its entirety."

The Teichert Foundation grant will provide full tuition and transcript fees for 21 teachers to receive one continuing education unit through 10 hours of education about insects.

The teachers' workshops are set from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., on Saturday, July 8 and Saturday, July 15. "We hope to draw teachers from a wide array of schools," DuCharme said. "The hope is that teachers will learn concepts they can pass on to classrooms for many years to come."

The two kids' camp will each accommodate 15 students. The "grasshopper camp," for first through third graders, is set for June 19-23 and the "mantis camp," for fourth through sixth graders, will take place June 26-30. Both are morning camps.

The Bohart Museum draws some 10,000 visitors a year, including Picnic Day, Kimsey said. Museum staff members annually conduct some 200 tours, ranging from pre-school to high school to university classes. Among the groups: UC Master Gardeners, Future Farmers of America, 4-H, Boy Scouts, Camp Fire Boys and Girls, and residents of the Yountville Veterans' Home.

Founded in 1946 and dedicated to teaching, research and service, the Bohart Museum houses some seven million specimens in its worldwide collection. It has the seventh largest insect collection in North America and the third largest university collection, Kimsey said. (The Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology has the largest, followed by the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco.)

The Bohart Museum collection focuses on terrestrial and fresh water invertebrates and is home to the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of the insect biodiversity of California's deserts, mountains, coast and central valley.

The Teichert Foundation annually awards $575,000 in grants to support community programs in 16 counties. This year the Teichert Foundation targeted the needs of local children and youth as its top priority, a spokesman said.

Teichert Inc., founded in 1887, is one of Sacramento's oldest and most established construction companies.

Further information on participating in the workshops or kids' camps is available from DuCharme at (530) 752-9555. The Web site is http://bohart.ucdavis.edu