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We held the plant rubbing & making ambers activity in our campus in April 11 to 12 as the first human practice activity , trying to interest the public, especially children and letting them know the fantasy of animals and plants in a sense. We are glad to see hundreds of people participating in our activities and manufacturing their own linen pockets with plants rubbed on them and ambers guided by our staffs.
Plant Rubbing
We originally put forward an idea to let chlorophyll or anthcyanin rubbed directly on the pockets. However, considering its possibility of degradation, consequently we decided to suggest participators applying the paint on the leaves. So we pick up some leaves from acertruncatum,metasequoia glyptostroboides,Broussonetia papyrifera and ginkgo biloba. The whole procedure goes like this: participators pick up a leaf they like and then apply some paint on the back of the leaf evenly and uniformly. After that, rub the plant on a linen pocket with hammer. Later, the leaves appears on the pocket. Some people decorate the different pigment on leaves and other draw a loving heart beside the leaves for their lovers. Well we explain to children about photosynthesis based on pigments like chlorophyll and light reaction system simultaneously. We hope they remember the knowledge of biology and enjoy the experience in Plant Rubbing.
Making Ambers
The 'making ambers' activity was held for making the public know the process of formation of natural ambers and triggering their interest in insects. We bought some insects specimen online with colophony prepared for drawing it. So we in advance melt the colophony and then direct the kids and parents to pour the colophony into a glass bottle with an insect inside. After a while, colophony solidified and an amber was completed.
Many kids said they enjoyed playing with insects in spare time, were intrigued in picking up and recognizing animals and wanted to get closer to the nature. Thus, we sincerely hope that our activity again would motivate their impetus to discover more magical things in our world.
