Dance in the Rain!

One of the lessons my kids learned today was about the Resurrection Fern (Pleopeltis polypodioides).  This amazing little plant can lose 75% of its water content and still survive in dry conditions! Most plants will die after the loss of only 10% of their water.  The Resurrection Fern shrivels up into a little brown clump but opens up after it rains, making it appear to come back to life.  It's never really dead, though! 

My students and I did an experiment where we took a single shriveled up fern off it's host tree (usually oak or cedar here), and put it in water overnight! They were amazed at the results!  It opened up and turned a bright green!  I told the kids that the fern was like a teenager, doing as little as possible, curled up in its little brown blanket with its video games until the rains come and then....its time to party!  It's time to dance! 

One of my students said "There is no way a teenager is going to dance in the rain!"  I said "Really?!"  "How many of you have ever run out and played in the rain?"  Half of the hands went up!  I encouraged them all to go out and play in the rain sometime, to experience the drops on their faces! (Not when there is lightning, of course). Then we discussed how in life we have to learn how to "dance in the rain" and what that metaphor means; we have to find joy when things are not going our way.  

It was a great teachable moment, and I wondered how many of them "got it" and of course I will never know, but something interesting happened as we walked down to the river for class. One student looked up at the darkening sky and said "What do we do at Nature's Classroom when it rains". (The student was really wondering if class would be canceled.)   Another student chimed in quickly with "Why, we'll just dance!"  It was priceless!

Fun fact; this fern (which is found in the southeastern U.S. from Texas to as far north as New York) was taken aboard the Spce Shuttle Discovery in 1997 to watch it "come back to life" in zero gravity!