>3) Specific suggestions for plant biology activities that would work in a
>science center.
Hydroponics is cool. It is always fun to see things growing without soil, and
if the set-up is active with a timer and sluices and such, it can be un-boring.
Live demo of carbohydrate production in leaves. Store plants in the dark
until they've used up their food reserves, then tape on masks, let
photosynthesize, and stain with iodine. Make comic strip characters appear!
What-is-it box full of odd fruits, cones, seeds, etc. Make a matching game
with pictures of the whole plant.
Play with plants area full of maple whirlies, natural rubber chunks, etc.
Plants and gravity--with fast-growing things you turn every couple of days.
Mimosa pudica!!
How does it get where it's going display? Wind-blown, animal-dispersed,
floating, etc. seeds and fruits.
Dissecting scopes and box of interesting things to put under them. Consider
having a live plant that is always in flower so flowers can be looked at.
Ditto slide microscope and cool stained sections of roots and stuff. Lots of
neat colors and shapes.
Display of something they know (ice cream is good because there is SO much
stuff in it; our poster has Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia) with lines leading
out to the the ingredients (herbarium sheets, photos, real plants, etc. (Our
ice cream has cherries, beet juice, red grape juice, lemon, guar gum,
carrageenan, etc., etc.)
Natural dyeing. TONS of fun, and there are all sorts of recipes that don't
use toxic mordants.
Natural fiber crafts. Also leaf rubbings and stampings.
This could be fun!
Monique Reed
Texas A&M
