When: Sunday, September 8th
Where: Open Streets University of Minnesota (UMN East Bank campus, across the street from the McNamara Alumni Center)
Weather: Cold (low 60s) with gray skies and a steady drizzling rain
Notable Details: We were set up by a slew of native plants hanging over a large raingarden. While rainy, we still had conversations with 32 people over three hours. A man learned the difference between edible purslane and toxic spurge. Many goldenrod flowers were re-named after the UMN mascot. People debated the merits of the scent of hyssop, which smells like anise, or black licorice. Several people declared they weren’t “good at science” or weren’t “into science” upon arriving at the Lab, and left 5 minutes later having made novel observations, detailed their findings, learned the name of a new plant, and shared that information with others. If that’s not science, what is?
sidewalkplantlab.org 