Some awesome fourth grade students and their wonderful teachers posing with the new Scrub Coloring Books after a field trip out in the Scrub at Archbold Biological Station. Photo by Dustin Angell.

Author by: Megan Selva

Archbold Biological Station is pleased to announce its release of its fourth edition of The Scrub Coloring Book! Thanks to a wonderful and generous donation by Dr. Warren Abrahamson and his wife Chris, Archbold was able to revise and print the latest edition of its coloring activity book. This book is given as a gift to children that participates in an Archbold field trip with their school, or visits with their family.

Children love coloring and it is a great way to pass time while also relieving stress and building creative skills. “When I reminisce on my childhood, I remember always asking for crayons or a sharpener for my colored pencils. Coloring books played a big role in my creative development and to this day I still enjoy coloring from time to time”. These are the words from Megan Selva, the current Environmental Education Intern at Archbold.

The Scrub Coloring book is not just a coloring book. As well as the many beautifully drawn pages, there are associated games and information about plants and animals found in the Florida scrub habitat. A lot of time and effort was put into preparing every single page. Each page can be an amazing educational tool and teachers really love to use some of the coloring pages for a wide range of learning activities in their classroom. Towards the end of the book, there are fun activities such as, ‘How to estimate the age of a Saw Palmetto’.

The Scrub Coloring Book was first designed and written in the 1990’s by Dr. Mark Deyrup, Archbold Entomologist (a biologist who studies insects) with illustrations by Mark and Kevina Vulinec, now a Professor  of Wildlife Biology at Delaware State University. Recent revisions to the text were completed by Dustin Angell, Archbold’s Director of Education. The cover was designed and colored by Charlotte B. Wilson while she was an Education Assistant at Archbold. Mark Deyrup still has all the original drawings in his lab. It is amazing the amount of creativity that went into making this book such an enduring success, now in its 4^th edition.

Cover of the new “Archbold Biological Station’s Florida Scrub Coloring Book”.
Photo by Megan Selva 

Dr. Abrahamson, Professor of Biology Emeritus at Bucknell University of Pennsylvania writes in the book, “The Scrub Coloring Book is dedicated to our daughter, Jill Raye Abrahamson (1973-2017), who first visited Archbold Biological Station and Florida Scrub in 1974 at 6-months of age. Seeing how our daughter’s appreciation of and respect for natural communities was cultivated by her experiences at Archbold, we are delighted to support the publication of this latest edition. We hope that you will gain an appreciation and a respect for not only Florida Scrub but also for all of Earth’s biodiversity and natural communities.”

It’s not just children that can enjoy coloring books. No longer just for the kids, coloring books are now very popular for adults too and many grown-ups enjoy the calming benefits of coloring. Archbold’s Scrub Coloring Book is also available free for download as an electronic file on the Archbold Biological Station website where it can be found on the Elementary School Resources webpage. What a fun and creative way for young and old alike to learn about our sense of place in the heartland of Florida. Enjoy coloring the scrub!

Megan Selva, Environmental Education Intern with a group of students holding up their new Florida Scrub coloring books. Photo by Dustin Angell.