At Plant Biology 2017, the Biology Learning Objectives, Outreach Materials & Education (BLOOME) awards were the focus of the Education Booth. These grants are awarded on a competitive basis to fund innovative ideas to increase education and outreach projects focusing on plant science literacy. Four previous award winners came to Hawaii to share the products of … Read more
Can art be used to teach elementary students that plants respond to environmental cues? How can museums make learning about plant evolution more fun? Does writing and editing Wikipedia articles increase student engagement in science writing? How can teachers use schoolyard woodlands to teach students about diversity? Can citizen science be used to demonstrate that … Read more
Big data, computation and bioinformatics have flooded the research community. At Plant Biology 2017, it flooded the classroom as well. The education workshop, “ABC’s (Analysis, Bioinformatics and Computation) in the Classroom,” featured integration of computation and analysis of biological data into the classroom. Dr. Katerina Thompson, University of Maryland, and Dr. Judy Brusslan, California State … Read more
How are genetically modified organisms (GMOs) made? Are they safe to eat? Follow along with Molly Edwards, the creator of Science In Real Life (IRL), as she heads to the Van Eck Lab at the Boyce Thompson Institute and demystifies GMOs by showing how they’re made in the lab and discussing their safety to consumers. Molly is a recipient … Read more
PlantingScience is an online mentoring program that virtually connects scientists with junior high or high school students as they participate in inquiry-based activities with plants. Mentors commit to an hour or so per week over roughly two to four weeks, during which they respond to student questions and help them design and interpret their experiments. … Read more