In recent summers the curriculum has included such classes as Appalachian studies, astronomy, conservation, dendrology ( the study of trees ), environmental ethics, larvotany ( the study of insect larvae and their host plants ), meteorology, mycology ( the study of fungi, including mushrooms ), nature journaling, spiders, wildlife art, and even environmental microbiology and forensic entomology.
42.
The scientific schools formed at the Institute : taiga forestry and productivity of forests, permafrost forestry, taxation and forest exploitation, forest morphology, cartography, aerospace information usage, forest genetics and selection, pyrology, zoology, microbiology, physiology and biochemistry of wood plants, dendrology and dendroclimatology and other spheres of forest biological science are the basis for mutual investigations with the scientists of the United States, Canada, England, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Belarus, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Japan, China, Korea, Mongolia.
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The arboretum is described in the American Association of Museums " Directory ", the American Horticultural Society's " North American Horticulture Reference Guide ", and Jacobs "'Gardens of North America and Hawaii ", and was featured in the 1994 educational film " The Greenday Kids Learn About Trees " and a 2007 PBS special for Illinois Stories, WSEC TV . It was one of 30 worldwide arboreta featured in the " New Trees " book compiled in 2009 by John Grimshaw for the International Dendrology Society, and has been dedicated in trust to Illinois College.
