| Abstract Detail
Reaching Out beyond the Ivory Towers Kramer, David W. [1]. Treating Plant Blindness: Informal Education through a Nature Sign Project. INFORMAL education is an often overlooked opportunity to educate students, citizens, even our faculty colleagues about the interesting world of plants. After more than 25 years in the classroom I find it amazing and amusing that a nature sign project on our campus has generated more interest in plant biology than all of those years of teaching! Faculty, students, and campus visitors have walked past interesting plants perhaps hundreds of times but still know little or nothing about them. Signs can help them understand how a plant is related to other plants, special features of the plant, and how it has been used by humans. Mentioning the plant's place in literature, art, history, folklore, etc. can vividly demonstrate the interesting cross disciplinary aspects of botany.
This presentation will include all the information and encouragement you need to launch a sign project on your campus, a local natural area, a botanical garden, or a school yard. I will tell you where to order the signs, how to find financial support for the project, and how to generate the information for the signs using undergraduates to do the research through independent study projects. I will bring samples of signs, a link to my web site where you can obtain the text of signs on our campus, and links to other sources of information for your signs. Participants should bring their own experiences and ideas to share.
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Related Links:
OSU-Mansfield Nature Sign Project
1 - Ohio State University at Mansfield, Mansfield, Ohio, 44906, USA
Keywords:
signs
nature signs
informal education
botanical garden
campus trails
nature trails
undergraduate research
plant blindness
plant identification.
Presentation Type: Education Forum Session:Informational Session
Session: F4a-1
Location: 304/Bell Memorial Union
Date: Saturday, July 29th, 2006
Time: 1:30 PM
Abstract ID:241 |
