In September, we organised a natural history day in the Škocjan Caves Park for 34 pupils from the 3rd grade of the Dr Bogomir Magajna Divača Primary School. We prepared a workshop on making a herbarium.
In science, herbaria are used to study plant species and their geographical distribution. Herbaria are particularly important today, in times of climate change, because botanists use them to observe changes in vegetation over time.
We walked through a karst meadow and collected different plants typical of dry grasslands. The pupils took the plants home with them, where they dried them as instructed and stored them in the herbarium that each pupil received.
The herbaria will also be displayed at the school and will serve as an excellent teaching tool for the pupils to learn about the biodiversity of Karst dry grasslands, which are considered to be one of the most diverse habitats in Europe.
The pupils then walked to a nearby karst pond, where they learnt about its nature conservation role as a habitat for aquatic and water-dependent plants and animals in this otherwise dry karst area.
