Eli Whitney Museum

Long before the beginning of modern chemistry, alchemists conjured with the chemistry of plants. They solved practical challenges: how to encourage growth, how to crossbreed plant lines to encourage sweeter fruits. Alchemists also looked for plant applications: bottling fragrance and extracting medicines. The most modern scientists at Yale now consider the molecular chemistry of plants. Their Botanical Gardens are the most exotic laboratory at Yale.

Visit the Marsh Botanical Gardens at Yale. Encounter plants collected from around the world. Ask: What made them important? and How might their stories change my world? At the Museum, we will dissect flowers and examine their parts with laboratory microscopes and a small field microscope that you will take home with you. Start some experiments to take home and follow.