ASPB EDUCATION FORUM

Plant Biology 2009 Education Booth Competition Winners
A Pleasing Combination of “Virtual” and “Reality”

The ASPB Education Committee is pleased to announce the winners of the 2009 Education Booth Competition. The winners’ dynamic projects were featured in the Education Booth at the ASPB Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii.

VIRTUAL
Using YouTubeTM and Animoto^TM to Engage Students in Plant Biology Classes
Daniel Cosgrove with Marcia Buanafina and Gregory Richter
Biology Department, Pennsylvania State University

Web-based video technologies, such as YouTube^TM and Animoto^TMmusic videos, have the potential to awaken student interest and to engage students in projects that deepen their knowledge of the subject matter—in this case, plant biology. This exhibit explains what Dan and his team have learned about using web-based video technologies for plant biology education during the course of their first plant biology video contest powered by YouTube. This contest was sponsored by the ASPB Education Foundation’s 2008 Grant Awards Program.

REALITY
Real Plants, Real Tools, Real Science
Martha Kirouac, Mike Kerkman, and Rachel Vourlas
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens

As issues such as global climate change and genetically modified organisms grow in importance, there is an urgent need to invigorate public dialogue and education about plant biology. In general, there is a lack of public knowledge about the role of plants in daily life despite their vital importance in the biosphere. “Plant blindness” is a term coined by biological educators James Wandersee and Elizabeth Schussler to describe this inability to appreciate the unique biological features of plants. Lacking hands-on experience in growing, observing, and identifying plants, people have few opportunities to become aware of basic plant science. The permanent conservatory exhibition “Plants are up to Something” (PAUTS), and its associated school program, “C.S.I.: Conservatory Science Investigation” (CSI), function as inoculants against plant blindness and scientific illiteracy through a policy of “real plants, real tools, real science.” The Huntington’s Education Booth exhibit highlights this award-winning approach with four sample activities and emphasizes how they can be used in outreach programming.