SEM image of stinging nettle
Session 3 – Plant Structures–Small But Powerful & The Elusive Water Bears
Saturday, May 23, 8:30am - noon
Field Portion:
Part A: Plant Structures – Small but Powerful - with retired biologist, Pat Miller and teacher/naturalist, Jean Wilkinson. We’ll explore the diversity and structure of plants, finding all sorts of amazing structures that allow plants to breathe, photosynthesize, defend themselves, attract pollinators, and send their genes along to other members of the species.
Part B: In Search of the Water Bear and Other Microhabitat Explorations – with marine naturalist, David Denning. We’ll search for the very small and very elusive water bear, or tardigrade. Along the way we’ll discover some fascinating small life of forests and moss colonies.
Lab Portion: We’ll look at our collected vascular plants and mosses focusing how they survive and reproduce. We’ll use high magnification to discover remarkable structures in the plants we have collected, sharing our findings by projecting images from the microscopes onto a large screen for viewing by the entire group. We hope also to crack the mystery of the elusive water bear, and get up-close-and-personal with springtails and other minute beasts that make their homes on forest floor, soil, and moss colonies.