Last week we went to Lane Community College for a botany field trip with a local homeschooling group. It was really neat to look at different plant cells through the microscopes. I was amazed at how incredibly beautiful the fern cells were and also how very different all the various plant cells looked from one another. We went from station to station in the classroom, compared plant cells to animal cells, and learned something new at each spot. (Bracken was a little disappointed when he looked through the microscope and there was nothing moving, but then Jeff got out a microscope when we got home and they looked at some moving microorganisms together.)
We got to see the Herbarium, the plant presses, and see how the plant samples were cataloged. The highlight for me was getting to see cordyceps mushrooms growing out of a larvae, which was found on the dunes in coastal Oregon. That was fascinating to me. I add cordyceps to our candies sometimes, and I appreciated the opportunity to see the cordyceps mushroom in real life. After the classroom time, we headed out to the Learning Garden. It was the perfect day for a tour around the garden, and I’m grateful to all the people who helped make the field trip happen that day.
Leave a Reply