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Article for: The Davis Enterprise
Date: March 5, 2004
Author: Sharon Navarro

SIGNS OF SPRING

"Spring Begins." It's a simple fragment on the March calendar, but it seems to say so much more: "Spring is dancing back to us, bringing its gifts, gently waking the daffodils and narcissus flowers, perfuming the air with the fragrance of almond and plum tree blossoms, and teasing a warmer kiss from the sun."

How are you celebrating the beginning of spring and preparing for the vernal equinox? Why not herald spring's arrival at Explorit's "Signs of Spring" workshop on Saturday, from 1:00 - 4:30, where you can participate in hands-on activities and discover the signs of spring all around.

"Visitors can create beautiful works of art by making seed mosaics with seeds that aren't viable to be planted, and also learn interesting facts about plants and gardening" said Explorit's Family Explorations coordinator, Tara Barbier.

Museum goers will also have a chance to plant seeds in flowerpots made from newspapers. The flowerpots can be taken home and the plant observed as it first sprouts its seed leaves. When the plant grows its second set of leaves, its true leaves, it is ready to be planted in the garden, pot and all. The perfect time to plant is after the last freeze of the season, and as spring approaches, the soil is warming up. 

"Besides being much more eco-friendly than a plastic pot, the newspaper pot decomposes into the earth, allowing the plant's roots to stretch out into the garden. As it decomposes, the newspaper provides nitrogen to the soil, and nitrogen is essential for plants to live," explained Barbier. "Visitors will also learn the difference between monocots, plants that poke out of the ground and reach for the sun with one leaf, like a blade of grass, and dicots, which sprout with multiple leaves," Barbier said.

The "Signs of Spring" workshop is free with paid admission to the exhibition "Get a Clue! Solving Mysteries with Science," which ends Sunday. 

Visitors who have been to the exhibit and solved the mystery of The Missing Millionaire or figured out Who Lifted the Lunchbox? by examining footprints and comparing fingerprint patterns will enjoy visiting again. 

Check out the exhibit one last time to learn how clues help solve deeper, more complex mysteries. Learn how paleobotanists, using their understanding of modern day plants, help us understand what ancient environments may have looked like by identifying fossil remnants. Or dabble in botany, puzzle over Plant Perplexities, view seeds under a microscope and look for distinguishing characteristics, such as ridges or special hair on the seed coat. 

Finally, travel back in time and examine Explorit's many fossils (real and plaster reproductions) from the seventy-million-year-old tooth of tyrannosaurus rex, to fossilized wood (a real fossil), which is over one hundred and twenty five million years old. Studies of fossils help us learn about past global climates and weather patterns.

Visit Explorit Saturday and come away with seed mosaic works of art, flowers ready to plant in your garden and a deeper appreciation for and understanding of nature. Then get ready to welcome spring with some gifts of your own.
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Become a member and win a prize!

New and renewed memberships received before March 29th will be entered in a drawing for a Sacramento Kings Pacific Division Champions cap autographed by Kings star, Vlade Divac. Details about membership can be found on Explorit's Web site or by visiting the center. Explorit will notify the winner on March 31st!
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Explorit Science Center is at 3141 5th Street in East Davis. The current exhibition "Get a Clue! Solving Mysteries with Science" ends Sunday. Explorit will be closed next week and then reopen March 13 with the new exhibition "Networks in Nature: The Original World Wide Web." Public hours are Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Tuesday through Friday from 2 to 4:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.explorit.org or call Explorit at (530) 756-0191.