On Friday, October 16, 2009, fourteen Home-Schoolers and seven adults found a little time for science and joined us at the Center to enjoy the “adventures of a dichotomous key.”
Given a pile of leafy tree branches the participants were challenged to divide their pile in two, based on leaf size, then further divide each pile on the basis of some other leaf appearance. And so forth.
This hands-on activity introduced them to the “either – or” choices of the traditional dichotomous keys used by naturalists and biologists.
With keys in hand the group hitched a “hay ride” to the forested section of the Bray Hollow Nature Conservancy and the Pitt County Environmental Education Center where they identified a number of trees.
On return to the Center’s “laboratory” (a.k.a. “The Rec. Room”) participants then “immortalized their favorite leaves in paint and cotton/polyester, making leaf prints on their selected tee shirts. All had fun and left with a self-made memento of their experience.
Photo Album
