Alternative fern collections
In this activity, students use a variety of non-traditional methods to create a fern collection for display.
Instead of mounting the dried specimens onto card, students can use mobile phone cameras, digital cameras, scanners or photocopiers to create virtual herbaria and explore alternative ways to display ferns.
You may wish to do the activity ‘Traditional fern collections’ concurrently.
Documenting our fern flora
Dr Patrick Brownsey from Te Papa tells us how botanists catalogue and document the fern flora of New Zealand. He explains what a type specimen is and why its description is especially important.
Point of interest: The person who finds a new species gets to make up a name for it. How might you go about choosing the name?
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
find imaginative ways in which to create and display fern collections
compare multimedia or alternative methods of collection with more traditional methods of collection.
Download the Word file (see link below) for:
introduction/background notes
instructions on what you need and what to do.
Related Content
In What is a fern? learn about this ancient group of plants and use this Slideshow to find out about the ferns of Aotearoa.
Visit the herbarium at Te Papa where over 260,000 plant specimens, including 19,000 fern specimens, are stored.
Use this timeline to discover some of the historical and cultural aspects of ferns in New Zealand and take a look at botanists past and present as they explore the science of ferns.
