HOW TO DO IT

Botanists make dried pressed specimens of plants as a means of keeping a permanent record of the vegetation in an area. The pressed material may include mosses, liverworts, seedless vascular plants conifers and flowering plants. The pressed specimens are catalogued and kept in an herbarium. Many herbaria exist in the world, in universities, botanical gardens, and museums. For a list of world herbaria see this website.

http://www.tau.ac.il/lifesci/botany/herbaria.htm

There are many methods for producing good herbarium specimens. The following sites are particularly useful.

Missouri Botanical Garden-Field Collecting techniques 
An excellent but somewhat lengthy introduction to collecting and pressing plants.

http://www.botany.utoronto.ca/courses/BOT307/B_How/janeTOC.html
This is a really useful site, especially for students learning how to prepare herbarium specimens for course work at the university level. There is interesting information on the naming of plants and in the appendix a useful section on the meaning of specific epithets. The reference section is also good.

Preserved and pressed plants
for elementary and high school students

Making a collection of dried plants can be a good way to teach young students about plants. The following site gives a number of suggestions for drying plant material, including the use of silica gel and also the use of a microwave.

http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets/HGIC1151.htm

Another site has good instructions for drying and pressing plants for use in card crafts etc. The methods include traditional pressing between telephone directories and also drying in the microwave. You may find commercial plant presses for use in the microwave but a heavy casserole dish or similar heavy microwave-safe object will perform the job just as well and be cheaper!

http://www.creeksideinc.com/good_day.htm
Go to this site and scroll down to "Pressing Flowers" by Phyllis Murell.

You may find that some of your peers are getting married while you are still at college and in a financially embarassed position. A good idea for a wedding gift is to ask the bride for a few flowers from her bouquet. Press these according to any of the instructions given above and compose a small picture of petals or whole flowers. Frame the picture and present it as a gift. It may be remembered more than many of the other gifts.

2. Make a presentation

1. Oral presentations

Jeff Radel at the University of Kansas Medical Centre has produced this excellent tutorial on giving oral presentations.

The same author has some good ideas for the effective use of visuals in presentations.

The University of Northern Arizona has a good site with both podium and poster presentations.

 

2. Poster presentations

There is an art to producing a good poster for a scientific meeting. The American Society of Plant Biologists has a very informative site which describes in some detail what makes a good poster.

A second site worth checking out is produced by Jeff Radel at the University of Kansas Medical Centre.