Glen,
  The shells are not given to the schools. The Education Department puts
together educational collections that teachers can use in their curricula.
When the are finished with then they return them to the museum.  Our Boy
Scout troop had a box of 10 mammal skulls loaned to us so that the boys
could study the differences in herbivores vs. carnivores, etc.  I actually
prefer this type of lending system.  A teacher might only need the
specimens for a week or two.  If we gave them the specimens they would sit
on a shelf for the rest of the year.  Also for a museum to give the
material away it would have to be formally deaccessioned.  This only makes
the process more combersome.
 
Charlie
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Charlie Sturm, Jr
Clinical Instructor - Family Medicine
  University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Research Associate - Section of Invertebrate Zoology
  Carnegie Museum of Natural History
 
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