With schools out for summer break and our exhibit building temporarily closed for our expansion project, we were more excited than ever to host our popular Family Discovery Camps this year. These outdoor sessions bring K-6 children and their families out into nature to learn about the wild and beautiful residents of our natural spaces.
Each Saturday morning session brought us out into the University of Florida’s Natural Area Teaching Laboratory with a scientist to see how researchers conduct fieldwork, the tools they use and the skills they have developed to better understand the organisms they study.
Our first event was on July 12 and was all about archaeology with Museum scientist Jen Green who is the collection manager of our South Florida Archaeology & Ethnography collection. We uncovered how Florida’s native people thrived using their natural surroundings, and learned about ancient tools, traditions, and the stories they tell about life long ago.
The next session on July 19 was all about how trees communicate, adapt, and support entire ecosystems in ways you never imagined. This week’s guide was Medelin Kant, a plant physiology graduate student from the University of Florida.
Then on July 26 we took a peek into the fascinating world of bees with Kaitlin Deutsch, a post-doctoral researcher at UF’s Honey Bee Research and Extension Lab. It was exciting to learn about how bees shape our environment and how we can support them.
And finally, on August 2, we learned all about mushrooms and fungi with Matt Smith, curator of the University of Florida’s Fungal Collection. Always a popular topic, we learned about glowing mushrooms, underground networks, how fungi are vital to life on Earth.
We appreciate our colleagues and neighbors at the UF Entomology and Nematology Department for hosting us in their facilities for these events while our exhibits building is closed for construction.
