Thursday, September 23, 2010

It's the bees-knees!


Ummm, I'm not 100% sure what this saying means (so I googled it, obviously). Thankfully, it does pertain somewhat to what my post is about. Bees. And the awesomeness of the Botanical Gardens. (Get it? Bees? The Botanical Garden is the bees-knees?Ok, I'm done).
Yesterday for my ecology lab we took a trip to the Botanical Gardens. Honestly, this lab is the best thing since sliced bread. Not only is it fun, but we get to take field trips every week! It's like elementary school all over again. Packed lunches and street-crossing buddies are optional. The focus of the lab was to study the movement of bees and pollination of different flowers. We worked in two separate areas of the Gardens in order to better understand the effect of flower color, location, scent, size, sunlight availability....you get the idea. Our professor, Dr. Franks, gave a brief introduction in our actual lab classroom then walked us over. For those of you who don't know, the Botans are literally right across the street. We spent more time walking on campus than we did off.
Anyways, the class and lab have both been incredibly interesting. Fun facts abound and you can't beat a class that makes you go outside in gorgeous weather. Next week we're heading off to the Calder Center which is our environmental research center about 45 minutes north of Rose Hill. It's a huge old mansion. With a lake. And paddle-boats. Just sayin'.
Only downside to this? Ecology is an upper level biology course (i.e. if you're not a bio major you probably aren't going to take this course). Nevertheless my eager young readers, the Botanical Gardens are available to all! Every Wednesday is free admission for students so everyone can enjoy the grounds. If you want to study bees, well, you're just going to have to sign up for some bio courses.


Nothing like some quadrants on a sunny Wednesday morning.


Pretty (Big) Bee.

Until next time.

Stephanie

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