Session 1 June 22

We started the rainy morning playing Picari in the greenhouse. Picari is a two-player abstract strategy game from the Zuni Native American Indians or the Pueblo Indians of the American Southwest. It is a cross between tic-tac-toe and checkers.

Then they had garden class with Ms. Melissa. She showed them her hydroponics growing center and discussed how it works. Then they helped pot "baby" plants to go in the greenhouse.

After snack, they played an Invasive vs. Native plants game. They each picked a card with either a Georgia native or invasive plant. The back of the card showed how their plant was affected by various events (drought, seed dispersal, herbivory, etc). Then they either moved forward or backward according to their plant/card. There were some hardy natives (like Virginia Creeper and Sparkle Berry) that survived the best. The invasive plants Chinese Privet and Japanese Honeysuckle were hardier than some of the other native plants like the Green Pitcher Plant and the Fringed Champion. We discussed why some invasives survived better than the invasive plants and what events seemed to affect their plant the most. We were supposed to go on a hike to find examples of these plants in the forest but it was still raining heavily on and off so we will do that challenge tomorrow.

Then the explorers used Japanese Honeysuckle vines to weave baskets. They worked on them for an hour or so up until lunch time and most finished.

After lunch, there was a unanimous vote to go to the creek even though it was sprinkling. Most tried to make a dam to create a place for water beetles (which were set free before we left). There was also a mud spa open for business.

Throughout the day we played games like: Fireprotector, Night at the Museum, Kookabird. There was also clay and coloring available for those that didn't want to play the games. And at the end of the day, when the sun finally came out, a few exploreres did some archery.