Florida Geology, Sandhills Restoration, and Gillespie Museum Tour

Beat the heat and join us for a three-in-one unique program about Florida geology, native sandhills habitat, and a bit of space related science.

Founded in 1958, the Gillespie Museum has been a center for earth and environmental science education on Stetson University campus for six decades. The museum houses a historic mineral collection, with nearly a thousand of its 15,000 specimens on display in changing exhibits. Small galleries are also devoted to collecting natural history, Florida ecosystems, fluorescent minerals, volcanism, and the rock cycle.

The grounds of the Gillespie Museum and of the adjacent Rinker Environmental Learning Center are home to the Volusia Sandhill Ecosystem Teaching Landscape, as well as an established Native Florida Plant Landscape.  This landscape is a project to recover the longleaf sandhill ecosystem that once existed as part of the dry, sandy slope of the DeLand Ridge The restoration site includes a pollination garden, several wiregrass areas, and plantings of Greeneyes, Coreopsis, Pawpaw, Silk grass, Gopher apples, and other native sandhill species.

Itinerary:

• Florida Formations Presentation 
• Tour of Volusia Sandhill + time to explore native plant garden
• Community Science Contributions (iNaturalist and eBird observations)
• Brief tour of museum followed by self-guided visit 

Special Exhibit:  Minerals in Space – it’s all about how minerals are used in building spacecraft and how those minerals are obtained.

The program is being offered for free.  We encourage you to consider leaving a small donation in the museum’s collection box.