EDUCATION FORUM

Jeremy Pritchard (right) discusses dangerous ideas with daring attendees!

Plant Biology 2009
Education and Outreach Minisymposium

On July 20, speakers from the United Kingdom, Mexico, Hawaii, and Virginia participated in Plant Biology 2009’s very successful Education and Outreach Minisymposium titled “Evolution and Innovation in Plant Biology Outreach for Elementary, Community College, Undergraduate, and Professional Science Educators.”

Jeremy Pritchard, from the University of Birmingham and chair of the Education Committee for the Society of Experimental Biology (SEB), delivered the keynote presentation, “Simple but Dangerous Ideas: Strategies to Help in Teaching Evolution.” Pritchard discussed how describing the historical aspect in the development of Darwin’s ideas could be useful pedagogically in the teaching of evolution. He also described resources that he has developed to address evolutionary issues and best practices in the teaching of evolution.

The second speaker was Cristina G. Reynaga-Pena, from the Centro de Investigacion y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN Unidad Irapuato, who presented “Development and Assessment of Didactic Packages Including DVDs on Plant Biology Experiments for Rural Schools in Mexico.” In her presentation, she described efforts to facilitate the first scientific experiences for Mexican children in rural areas through three-day workshops. Her presentation included video clips of the children doing investigations on such topics as photosynthesis and plant cells. As part of the program, DVDs of the workshops will be distributed to other rural schools to enable teachers to implement these investigations with their students.

“Advances in Biosciences Education for Community Colleges: The Journey from Summer Workshop to Year-Round Independent Research Project” was presented by Kabi Neupane, from Hawaii’s Leeward Community College. He discussed an NSF-funded project that brought together students and faculty from four community colleges and researchers at the University of Hawaii in hands-on workshops utilizing techniques employed in ongoing research. As part of this grant, workshops were held each summer for four years to provide training in recombinant DNA, molecular biology, genomics, bioinformatics, and fluorescent and electron microcopy that carried over into the academic year, allowing a number of students to characterize and identify more than 600 genes in senescing tissue of Anthurium adreanum, an economically important ornamental plant in Hawaii.

The fourth speaker, Erin Dolan, from Virginia Tech, presented “Undergraduate-Level Inquiry: Benefits and Challenges of Engaging in Classroom-Based Research,” in which she described student perceptions of the benefits and challenges when participating in classroom-based research. Students designed and conducted their own investigations to study how disabling certain genes in Arabidopsis can affect the plant’s interactions with certain herbivores. Results of student interviews indicted the complexity of inquiry-based teaching in the undergraduate classroom and that the extent of instructors’ involvement influences students’ perceptions of their research. This program was sponsored by the Partnership for Research and Education in Plants for Undergraduates (PREP-U).

In closing, Jane Ellis, moderator of the Education and Outreach Minisymposium, noted the wide variety of topics presented and diversity in the speakers’ backgrounds, which added to the symposium’s strength and success.

Jane Ellis