Plant BLOOME Grant- Award Recipients and Project Descriptions

Plant BLOOME—Managed by the ASPB Education Committee, the Plant Biology Learning Objectives, Outreach Materials & Education (BLOOME) Grant funds projects to advance youth, student, and general public knowledge and appreciation of plant biology.  This sponsorship supports travel for a BLOOME awardee to the Plant Biology annual meeting.

2025 Recipients

PI: Nivedita Arora, Northwestern University

Co- Leaders: Susan Strickler, Sarah Jones

To address challenges in agriculture, climate resilience, and bio-energy, students must understand how plants respond to their environment—not as static equations, but as dynamic, measurable processes. Yet biology education lacks tools to bring this interactivity to life. Photosynthesis-Bits transforms how photosynthesis is taught—immersing students in real-time plant data that illuminate the interplay between environment and internal plant processes. The course integrates a frugal electrochemical sensor—developed by PI Arora’s lab—with frugal data collection methods and inquiry-based learning. Students build sensors, monitor plant responses, and classify photosynthetic types (C3, CAM) using basic machine learning. Through this hands-on experience, they gain skills across biology, electronics, and data science, while developing a systems-thinking mindset. Our course covers ASPB teaching principles like Evolution, Ecosystem, Molecules & Organisms. We will teach this course to Northwestern University plant biology freshmen and high schoolers at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Broader impacts include open-source hardware kits, student-generated datasets, and a public gallery of experiments. Our work offers a scalable model for interdisciplinary STEM education—empowering students to view the living world as computational, responsive, and worthy of scientific exploration.

PI: Erin Rierson, Longwood University

Many students have difficulty understanding biogeochemical cycles and the movement of water, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus through ecosystems. Carbonland is a game in which students take on the identity of carbon atoms that move through an ecosystem. Students start their journey as a carbon dioxide atom in the atmosphere, and as the game progresses, they move from reservoir to reservoir. They identify the physical and chemical processes that drive the movement of carbon atoms through an ecosystem as well as the various compounds that incorporate carbon. The game simulates the randomness of carbon movement, length of residence time in reservoirs, and the perpetual nature of nutrient cycling. Carbonland is The Game of Never-Ending Fun!

PI: Katelin Gaeth, Denver Botanic Gardens

Co-PI: Esperanza Rodriguez

Investigating Plant Biology from Compost to the Kitchen will engage elementary and middle school classrooms in plant-focused learning through a series of lessons spanning 6 or more weeks. Teachers will receive Classroom Grow Kits, with seed starting materials curated by Denver Botanic Gardens, as well as worm bin kits to begin making their own compost in the classroom. Starting with roots and compost and ending with harvesting and tasting different plant parts, students will gain appreciation for plant biology at various stages in the life cycle of plants and discover the integral role plants play in our food system. Offering our materials in both English and Spanish allows us to equitably serve a large portion of local students in Colorado, especially the Denver area, and also makes our lessons relevant to Spanish speaking students and bilingual classrooms across the country. Our project includes 6 modules of instruction, each of which incorporates hands-on interactions with real plants and engaging activities to provide relevant instruction on the principles of plant biology. My team and I are excited to get to work spreading the magic and joy of seed starting and vermiculture with teachers and their students!

PI: Maribel Gendreau, Hampton Roads Academy

Co-PI: Marcy Ouellette

This collaborative project with middle school co-PI Marcy Ouellette brings salt marsh ecosystems into the classroom through an engaging and accessible curriculum for middle and high school students. By focusing on the critical role of salt marsh grasses in protecting coastlines, improving water quality, supporting biodiversity, and storing carbon from the atmosphere, the curriculum helps students understand the broader environmental significance of these habitats. Importantly, it provides educators—even those in inland or non-coastal regions—with the tools to teach students about salt marshes and their vital role in climate resilience and ecosystem health. Through this program, students everywhere will gain a deeper appreciation for the interconnectedness of ecosystems and the importance of protecting natural habitats, fostering environmental awareness and stewardship regardless of geographic location

PI: Julianna Piat, Keele University

I am excited to be working with ASPB to design a practical module on pollen identification from honey which will enable students to develop core practical and analytical skills, and most importantly encourage a greater appreciation of plant biodiversity. This work will be conducted in partnership with one of our Keele undergraduate students.  

PI: Zack Bateson, National Agricultural Genotyping Center Fargo, ND

Co-PI: James Gillahan, Woodridge High School Peninsula, OH

Modern genetics blends lab work and computational analyses; this project helps classrooms keep pace by introducing digital tools for exploring plant genetics. An industry molecular scientist (ZB) and a high school teacher whose career began in molecular research (JG) will produce a range of activities designed to build data literacy, foster inquiry, and support career exploration using free, web-based platforms.

PI: Beth Cates, Western Sierra Collegiate Academy

Focus on Plants builds plant identification cards to identify common native, horticultural, and invasive plants in local areas including backyards, suburban sidewalks, urban lots, and schoolyards.

Plants tend to blend together in many students’ everyday lives. This project seeks to bring plants into focus with cards and a teacher toolkit to create a resource to help classroom teachers and students identify common plants around them as an entry into understanding plant biology. Making plants visible to students in their daily lives starts with helping them to identify and recognize the plants around them: to differentiate and determine major patterns in plant phenotypes. In my quest to find a resource for students to identify the plants around them, I found information about native plants, model research plants, agriculture, invasive plants, and horticulture. To even begin to identify things that my students pass every day on their walks to school I needed to trudge through dozens of resources—but none of these resources are pooled together, and there is no resource that I could find as an instructor to help me put together a “common” plant checklist for students where they can begin to identify their own neighborhood flora and differentiate between the types of organisms they’re encountering. While plant identification apps exist, they rely on students to have access to technology, and that students understand enough about plants to identify when the apps are wrong. I’ve realized that to find the resource that students need, I need to create it in my local context, and to leave a roadmap to help others create inroads for their students as well. This will involve research with city and county planning documents, native plant lists through Calscape, agricultural organizations, and the California Invasive Plant Council. Ultimately, it seeks to enrich the lives of students by helping them to identify and understand the outdoor plants in their daily lives.

PI: Kristy Daniel, Texas State University

Co PIs:

Carrie Jo Bucklin, Texas State University

Amy Godfrey, Farias-Spitzer Elementary (FSE), Comal Independent School District (CISD)

Dr. Kristy Daniel is collaborating with co-leads, Dr. Carrie Bucklin and Mrs. Amy Godfrey, to develop a 5-E instructional module that explores plant adaptations as a mechanism of natural selection to enhance elementary student learning about plant biology and reduce plant blindness. The instructional model will center around a new outdoor science inquiry activity, Research Rangers: Plant Protectors. The project team will also showcase how leveraging a service-learning approach to build this new activity also broadens the project’s educational impact by teaching university students how to translate their plant biology research into effective educational materials.

PI: Malini Muthu Karpagam, Smith College

Co-PI: Jess Gerson, Smith College

Co-PIs: Siva Sankari, Hawar Khalandi, Madison Mitchell, Janie Rainer, and Ritvee Talele- Stowers Institute for Medical Research 

Our teaching philosophy in science and environmental education is rooted in the belief that all students deserve access to inclusive, engaging, and meaningful experiences. We aimed to provide just that to our local high schools this past spring by providing hands-on workshops on symbiotic nodule formation and bacterial nitrogen fixation in Medicago sativa (alfalfa). Teachers approached us afterwards asking if a similar experience for younger learners was possible, so we endeavored on creating an engaging plant-focused curriculum for K-3. It is well-known that early exposure to the sciences can lead to an interest in pursuing future STEM education. However, limited background knowledge and short attention spans can make it challenging to engage young, impressionable minds—an educational gap our module is specifically designed to bridge. Our materials are designed to be accessible for learners of all backgrounds and abilities. We will be providing both teachers and students with guided lessons on plant biology, including plant anatomy, essential inputs required for growth, and the ways plants interact with their environment, while simultaneously cementing the importance of sustainable agricultural practices. For classrooms seeking a deeper exploration of ecological systems, the curriculum will provide students with a foundational understanding of microorganisms and their critical role in supporting not only human life but also plant life and development through nodule-formation—presented as a “house” for bacteria living symbiotically with plants. To maximize engagement and learning, each lesson will include multi-sensory components including cultivation of Trifolium repens (white clover), matching and drawing exercises in workbooks, and the use of Foldscopes, so that students can visually interact with the micro-world they are learning about. By making science feel relevant and exciting at the K-3 level, we hope to “plant the seed” for a lasting appreciation for the environment and nurture a generation of thoughtful, informed, and curious young scientists.

Co-PIs: Maria Karkanitsa and Madeleine Duquette, UCSD

The UCSD Science in Jails initiative is an outreach program at UC San Diego focused on increasing outreach to marginalized communities via STEM education in incarceration facilities. As an organization since 2019, we have taught almost 30 classes at two re-entry facilities in San Diego County in topics varying from food science to psychology. We are excited to continue our efforts with funding for the BLOOME grant to develop a plant biology course tailored towards teaching incarcerated people.

2024 Recipients

PI: Christopher Buschhaus, Crandall University

Co-PI: Diandra Singh, Crandall University

When you see a bird on an apple branch, do you see the plant? Neither, likely, do most students. Problems arising from this lack of plant awareness range from under-representation of plants on species-at-risk lists to concern over filling critical positions in the agricultural industry. To bolster the next generation’s plant awareness, we will first generate a choose-your-own-adventure-styled educational module aimed at middle school students that allows students to explore the utilitarian value of plants as food, fibre, fuel, and medicine. A second, partnering module that teachers can select to incorporate concurrently or independently, will provide activities that support student-led investigations on how their actions affect plants. Using a series of treatments mimicking anthropogenic environmental changes and (if desired) dictated by student choices in the first module, students will experimentally explore the consequences to plants of human choices. Overall, we will create and assess two linked-but-independent teacher resource packages that should enable students and teachers to choose-their-own-adventures towards plant awareness.  

PI: Christos Noutsos, SUNY Old Westbury

PI: Tuan Tran, University of South Alabama

The ASPB BLOOME educational project led by Tuan Tran, assistant professor of biology at the University of South Alabama (USA) and Jill Presel, USA graduate student and science teacher at Phillips Preparatory School is set to transform how middle school students learn about plant biology. The initiative, titled “Botanical Pioneers: Decoding Plant Resilience in Extraterrestrial Soil,” aims to introduce students to the critical role of plants in ecosystems, particularly in the context of climate change and space exploration. By developing a hands-on, hypothesis-driven curriculum, the project seeks to fill the gap in Alabama K-12 education regarding plant responses to environmental stresses. 

This innovative program will be rolled out across middle schools in Mobile, AL targeting science teachers and students in grades 6-9. Science teachers will be recruited and trained to guide students through experiments involving plants seedlings subjected to various abiotic stresses such as drought, heat, and different soil types, including Earth soil, simulants of lunar, and Martian soils. The curriculum is designed to be both affordable and scalable, utilizing easily obtainable materials and simple setups. Students will engage in scientific inquiry by formulating hypotheses, conducting experiments, and analyzing data, fostering a deeper understanding of plant biology and the scientific process. 

The expected outcomes are multifaceted, aiming to enhance scientific literacy, critical thinking, and experimental skills among students. We hope to learn from the participating teachers and students not only about the module, but also their need for a plant biology module that meets educational standards and effectively engages young learners. This project not only prepares students to tackle real-world environmental challenges but also inspires future generations to explore the fascinating world of plant science, both on Earth and beyond. 

 

PI: Natalie Nannas, Hamilton College

Genetics can be both a source of both fascination and frustration for students early in their biology education. Students are often intrigued by the idea of inheriting biological information from parents, but grasping the predictive and quantitative aspects of genetics can be challenging. Historically, genetics has been taught through a Mendelian approach using Punnett Squares, but this can hamper students’ ability to think beyond basic Mendelian laws to the complex realities of genetics.  With support from the BLOOME grant, I will lead a team of undergraduate students at Hamilton College to develop game-based genetics learning module for middle school students (6th-8th grade). The game is called “Mendel and the Mysterious Case of Maize Chromosomes” and it will make use of the simple R gene-controlled trait of purple and yellow maize kernels. Mendelian genetics predict that a Rr individual crossed with a rr individual will produce 50-50% purple and yellow offspring. However, certain varieties of maize produce a skewed 80-20% pattern due to an abnormal, selfish chromosome that breaks the laws of Mendelian genetics. Middle school students will learn allele inheritance through a Mancala-based board game involving gemstones (alleles) placed into pockets (kernels). By playing the game with “standard genetic rules” and with the “genetic cheaters”, students will learn concepts in transmission genetics, population and quantitative genetics as well as evolution and plant development. As their semester project in my advanced genetics course, Hamilton students will collaborate with local middle school teachers to develop the materials including the maize ears with the color patterns, implement the game, and assess its success toward the learning goals. After development, our team will visit five local middle schools from under-served districts to share the game, helping over 150 middle school students get hands on experience with plants and genetics. To have a broader reach and impact, we will also develop a digitally shareable version of the game to be posted on the ASPB website and our science outreach YouTube channel, “SciKids Network”. Thank you to ASPB and the BLOOME Grant for the support to make this project a reality! 

2023 Recipients

PI: Jedaidah Chilufya, University of Massachusetts Amherst  

Lead PI: Haiwei Lu, Central Community College – Hastings (Hastings, NE)

CO-PI: Steven H. Strauss, Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR)

Genetically modified (GM) plants, which include a wide range of transgenic and gene edited (e.g.., CRISPR) traits and crops, hold tremendous promise for plant breeding. Yet the public, including high school students and college students, tend to perceive risks towards releasing GM plants into the environment and consuming food products derived from GM plants. While some of these concerns are legitimate, many are false claims rooted in misconceptions about why and how GM plants are produced—and the extent to which they have been tested for safety. To promote science-based understanding of GM plants, Dr. Haiwei Lu, a biology instructor at Central Community College – Hastings (Hastings, NE) and Dr. Steven H. Strauss, a university distinguished professor at Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR), decided to work collaboratively to develop a learning module that covers GM plant production and regulation.

The proposed learning module will consist of several lectures and present up-to-date knowledge on how GM crops are similar to and different from conventional breeding, how GM plants are produced in laboratory settings, which GM plants have been commercialized, and how the environmental and commercial release of GM plants are regulated. This learning module primarily targets first-year college and high school students. We will design the components of the module to be easily adapted to a wider range of audiences in different educational settings. Some examples include middle schoolers in summer camps, K-12 teachers in professional development programs, and senior people in post-retirement learning programs.

Drs. Lu and Strauss feel excited about this Plant-BLOOME-supported project. They anticipate that this learning module will promote rational, evidence based understanding of GM crops among the public.

PI: Ken Olsen, Washington University in St. Louis

Co-PI: Carolyn Spangler, Wellesley High School

This BLOOME project supports a high school Biology classroom lab activity  — “The Clover Project” — that uses common lawn clover to investigate the connections between genetics, ecology, plant physiology, and local climatic adaptation.  White clover (Trifolium repens) is naturally polymorphic for cyanogenesis (HCN release following tissue damage), a well-studied anti-herbivore defense.  White clover plants may be either cyanogenic or acyanogenic, and population frequencies vary by climate across North America — ranging from >95% cyanogenic plants in the deep South to <10% in the northern Midwest.  Cyanogenesis occurs when cell rupture in damaged leaf tissue brings together two required precursors (cyanogenic glucosides and their hydrolyzing enzyme), detonating a “cyanide bomb”.  The polymorphism is controlled by two simple Mendelian polymorphisms that determine the presence/absence of each required precursor.   

 

Clover plants are easily assayed for cyanide production in the classroom using color-changing test paper, allowing students to calculate their local genotype frequencies and compare their data to classes from other climates across the country.  In so doing, the project engages high school students and teachers nationwide in hands-on, inquiry-based learning that spans plant biology, ecology and evolution.  As one teacher user has commented, “I think this project is so powerful because it pulls together so many topics in biology… from enzyme activity, to genetics, evolution, ecology and even plant structure!” 

 

Our BLOOME project is a collaboration of Ken Olsen, a professor and plant evolutionary biologist in the Biology Department of Washington University in St. Louis, and Carolyn “Beanie” Spangler, a Biology teacher at Wellesley High School in Wellesley, Massachusetts.  We receive additional support through Washington University’s Institute for School Partnership.  We’re very excited to have the ASPB’s support for The Clover Project, as this will allow us to continue to provide teachers and their classes with cyanogenesis testing kits and instructional materials developed by and for teachers.  More than 300 teachers and thousands of high school students have used this lab activity to date.  We’re looking forward to expanding and developing The Clover Project even further with our BLOOME funding. 

2022 Recipients

PIs:

Mindy Findlater, Assistant Teaching Professor, University of California, Merced

Erin Friedman, Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Lynchburg

Plant scientists are working hard to assist with meeting global food production challenges, and the genetics and plant breeding techniques involved in these projects are fundamental, essential, and frequently misunderstood by the public. Our BLOOME team, a collaboration between Mindy Findlater, Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of California, Merced and Erin Friedman, Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Lynchburg, will create a teaching module that covers basic genetics through the lens of current food production challenges.  

We are excited about this project because it will involve active learning techniques that can be used in small or large classrooms and will meet the needs of instructors at both the advanced high school and lower division undergraduate levels. Our project will require minimal materials, so it can be easily implemented in classrooms. Misinformation on the genetic modification of crop plants can be found everywhere, and we hope to help students at a wide range of levels and schools review basic genetics, learn a bit about plant breeding, and grow an understanding and appreciation of current crop genetics.   

PIs:

Katharine Covino, Fitchburg State University

Erin Rehrig, Fitchburg State University 

It has been over 20 years since the term plant blindness was coined to explain an overall educational apathy and lack of appreciation for plants.  This “blindness” often begins in early elementary school and persists into college. The goal of our project is to make first-year college students interested in, knowledgeable about, and appreciate plants using the Young-Adult (YA) Novel Bloom by Kenneth Oppel.  Because the book is highly-exciting, intricately-plotted, and well-researched, it can be used as a literary tool to motivate students to learn about topics such as photosynthesis, plant growth and development, and invasive species. 

PIs

Jeremy Hsu, Chapman University

Hagop Atamian, Chapman University

Many students perceive plants as static and do not recognize that plants are incredibly dynamic in many different aspects. Specifically, students tend to have trouble conceptualizing the malleable nature of gene expression, and how environmental factors can influence gene expression. Our team will develop a hands-on, experimental module based around published research examining circadian rhythms in cabbage from grocery stores. In the module, students will conduct a series of experiments using cabbage from grocery stores to investigate how environmental cues impact gene expression and herbivory in these plants. Students will be challenged to think critically throughout the process as they analyze and evaluate their findings. 

The project team consists of Jeremy Hsu and Hagop Atamian, both assistant professors of biology at Chapman University. We are excited to partner with several local high schools for this project and are grateful for the support of the ASPB BLOOME grant. The grant will enable us to integrate this module in our local high schools, promoting knowledge and interest in plant biology. The grant also supports our curricular development, assessment, and dissemination of the materials to the ASPB and broader plant and biology education communities. 

2021 Recipients

Lead PI: Dr. Dior Kelley, Iowa State University

The ISU BLOOME team consists of Dr. Dior Kelley, Assistant Professor of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology (GDCB), Dr. Renu Srivastava, Assistant Teaching Professor (GDCB), and Dr. Alexis Campbell, Director of the ISU Science Bound program. 

    Plants are a fundamental component of a healthy and sustainable future for our world. As plant scientists we are responsible for increasing plant awareness, especially at critical educational transition points. Our collaborative female scientist team will provide hands-on plant biology laboratory experiences at Iowa State University (ISU) for underserved pre-college students in partnership with the Science Bound program during the 2021-2022 academic calendar. Through the generous support of the BLOOME grant we have designed three hands-on educational Science Bound Saturday events geared towards 8th and 9th grade students during the 2021-2022 academic calendar. Additionally, this grant will launch a new five-day campus residential program for 10th and/or 11th grade Science Bound students to be offered in summer 2022. 

    These educational activities will cultivate multidisciplinary research experiences for Science Bound students through hands-on involvement with microscopy, plant phenotyping and basic coding using maize root systems grown in a controlled environment system. The students will gain new knowledge about root growth and development in the “amaizing” crop, Zea mays, acquire new experience with plant growth regulators (such as auxin and cytokinin), and develop basic quantitative phenotyping skills using ImageJ and RStudio. We will use pre- and post-surveys to assess student interests in plant and/or data sciences and will track participant demographics through the Science Bound program. Because the Science Bound program works with students through 5-year precollege program and 9-years if they attend ISU we will have the ability to compile longitudinal data on the participants. Our dissemination plan to communicate these educational activities to the plant biology community will include a poster presentation at the 2022 ASPB Plant Biology conference and producing an electronic toolkit outlining the materials and methods for the hands-on activities performed. This project will be sustained through ISU funding and support via the Science Bound program and the Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology. 

Lead PI: Michael Grillo, Loyola University of Chicago 

The plant-microbe mutualism between legumes and nitrogen-fixing bacteria (rhizobia) is one of the most economically and ecologically significant interactions on Earth. This classic symbiosis also presents considerable potential as a K-12 classroom model for engaging students in scientific inquiry and plant biology. Most existing teaching materials involving this system are largely composed of stand-alone, cook-book style experiments with limited opportunities for authentic student investigation. The primary goal of this BLOOME project is to train high school teachers to develop, implement, and revise Next Generation Science Standards-aligned laboratory materials to complement grade 9-12 biology instructional storylines.  

More and more teachers are asked to implement inquiry-based approaches in the classroom – a difficult task as most teachers have not had personal experience with inquiry and scientific research. Moreover, teachers rarely take plant specific courses and thereby have limited exposure and low-comfort levels with plant biology content. Thus, a secondary goal of this project is to provide research experience for teachers (RETs) utilizing legume-rhizobium experiments in PI-Grillo’s lab. Mentoring teachers allows the impacts of this project to have lasting benefits and reach a large and diverse population of students. This proposal greatly benefits from partnership with the NSF funded Loyola University of Chicago (LUC) Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, which is directed by co-PI Lara Smetana. RETs will be recruited from the LUC-Noyce Teacher Scholar alumni that currently teach high school biology in Chicago Public Schools.  

During the summer of 2021, 3 RETs will conduct research in PI-Grillo’s lab and develop teaching modules that they will then implement in their classrooms. In the summer of 2022, the teaching modules will be presented at ASPB and teacher conferences, as well as publication in relevant websites and journals. While the results of this work will be disseminated broadly, this project is well suited to provide classroom materials and exposure to plants for students in Chicago Public Schools, many of whom are underserved and from underrepresented backgrounds in STEM.  

2020 Recipients

PI: Max Barnhart 

Co-PI: Simone Lim-Hing 

University of Georgia, Department of Plant Biology 

 

A major challenge in communicating science to the public is providing easily accessible content for people to engage with as part of their daily lives. There are many barriers preventing science from being easily accessible to the public. Science writing can be difficult to understand and hidden in places the public does not have access to. Outreach activities that provide a dialogue between scientists and the public are held infrequently or are difficult for people to find. We believe that science should be available within arm’s reach of a community while also being accessible to consume and fun to interact with. To achieve this, we aim to print several issues of a science zine and freely distribute them to public spaces, such as coffee shops and restaurants, in the city of Athens, GA. 

 

Zines are short, informal magazines that are commonly used to educate communities about social movements while also being extremely cost-efficient to produce. The zine format also makes content more approachable for general audiences by being artistic, trendy, and fun. We are creating a zine that takes all of these elements and uses them to present important topics in science, specifically research that is taking place at the University of Georgia with a strong emphasis on plant biology. Physical copies of the zine will be widely distributed across Athens, GA and digital copies of the zine will be used to expand our reach beyond the immediate community we serve. 

 

To create this zine, we are working with members of the Athens Science Observer, a student-run organization that has been publishing science blog posts and other material on its website since 2015. ASO has dozens of students committed to creating unique and exciting scientific content for each issue of the zine. By bringing student-created, science content to the public in the form of a zine, we hope to engage with members of the public that would otherwise not be reached through other forms of scientific outreach. 

PI: Kris Callis-Duehl 

Co-Pis: Renee Dale and Sandra Arango-Caro 

Donald Danforth Plant Science Center 

 

The goal of this project is to bring plant and mathematical biology and to the high school classroom. The video game will cover several science and math curriculum standards, and include integrated assessments and an educator handbook to maximize its utility to the classroom. We are excited to begin work on this project, and hope that its success will enable other plant systems (and models!) to be made approachable for a broader audience. 

Renee Dale envisioned this project as a PhD candidate at LSU. She is a mathematical biologist and modeled the drought stress response signaling pathway in Arabidposis. This pathway, amongst other complex and hidden behaviors in plants, seemed a good candidate for combating plant blindness, using technology to make such ‘invisible’ behaviors appreciable by students. Having struggled with math anxiety herself, she wanted to develop a game to make math more approachable and less likely to elicit negative knee-jerk responses to math. The game is therefore intended to ‘hide’ math, with more mathematical modeling concepts being revealed as the player progresses.  

This project is led by Kristine Callis-Duehl, a principal investigator at Danforth plant science center, who is responsible for project oversight and reporting; Renee Dale, a postdoctoral researcher in the Baxter and Topp labs at Danforth, who conceived of the project and will be responsible for the majority of the design and work; and Sandra Arango-Caro, who will be ensuring educational rigour.  

Lead PI: Jessica Lucas 

University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh 

This project will enhance plant science education within the University of Wisconsin System. Lucas will create, implement, assess, and disseminate an original plant science Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) and a series of Botanical Case Studies. Each case study will accentuate core concepts in plant biology and highlight essential relationships between plants and humans. The overarching intellectual aims of this project align with recommendations stated in “Vision and Change for Undergraduate Biology” (NSF and AAAS, 2011). This project emphasizes the action items to 1) focus on student-centered learning, 2) introduce students to research early, and 3) reiterate core concepts and competencies throughout the curriculum (p. xiv).  

 

This project begins at the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh (UWO) in a gateway biology class, Bio 105 taught by Lucas. In the first year of this project, 150 college students learn using the case studies, and 60 students will participate in the CURE. These learning experiences will increase students’ understanding, mastery, awareness and appreciation of plant science. Students will also gain competencies in essential lab equipment and software, while improving their aptitude in scientific literacy, quantitative reasoning and critical thinking. Student learning and attitudes will be assessed through pre- and post-tests with established concept inventories supplemented with plant-specific questions.

2019 Recipients

PI: Carol Goodwillie, East Carolina University

The most satisfying part of my career so far has been to watch students get “turned on” to plants. In a new collaboration with Patricia “Patch” Clark, a professor of theatre education, we hope to make that process happen for undergraduates, children, and citizens in our community by bringing theatre to plant biology education. At the centerpiece of the project, undergraduate students in a plant biology course will work with theatre education students to develop a play for children about trees, their biology, and the important ecosystem services they provide. To reach a diverse audience, our play will be performed in local public schools, at a community center, and at a science education center. How many children have played a silent tree as an extra in a school play? Now trees will play the starring role.

Undergraduate biology students will solidify their understanding of plant biology as they teach theatre students about the scientific content of the play. Knowledge of plants gained by theatre education students will serve them in future K-12 careers. In working together, we anticipate that both groups of students will gain new perspectives, ways of thinking and communicating.

We propose that theatre can be an effective way to convey some of the more complex topics in plant biology. Even abstract concepts such as carbon cycling and water potential might be conveyed through drama and movement. In addition to developing theatre for children, we will use students in the playwriting class as an “incubator” to develop improvisational drama exercises that can be integrated into undergraduate courses in plant biology to teach difficult concepts. We’re looking forward to all that we’ll learn in this collaboration and greatly appreciate the support of the Plant BLOOME program!

PI: Loralee Larios, University of California Riverside

The formidable years of middle school are often defined by the social challenges that students face, but a less-known fact is that these years are also critical for the STEM trajectory of a student. A key element to encourage scientific literacy at this pivotal age is promoting educational experiences that enhance a student’s self-efficacy, that is their self-confidence in their ability to successfully conduct STEM activities. Complementary to these efforts is the need to bridge the gap between those people who do science as a living and students who are learning science.

Therefore, our outreach program has three main goals: 1) improve science literacy and plant science awareness with plant science lab activities, 2) increase middle school students’ self efficacy and identity in STEM, and 3) increase interactions between plant scientists and students. We aim to achieve these goals by developing a sustained partnership among teams of undergraduate and graduate students/postdocs, a teacher, and middle school students over the course of the school year. As part of this partnership, our teams will visit a class on average once a month throughout the school year and present a series of exercises that help them explore plant biology within the context of the pressing challenge of drought facing southern California.

As plant scientists, we earnestly try to understand the impacts of drought from the cellular level to the ecosystem level to provide more insights into how drought stress can impact a range of services – from crops to biodiversity in both urban and natural settings. As citizens, we are asked to conserve water and be ‘water-wise’, but too often the science motivating ‘water-wise’ decisions is omitted in these discussions. Drought, therefore, provides a unique backdrop to our classroom activities that promote student scientific literacy within plant biology, where students will be directed to explore how plants cope with stress from the cellular to ecosystem level, contextualizing these experiences within a genuine challenge they face in their day-to-day lives. We are excited about implementing this plant-biology focused outreach program to improve middle school students’ scientific literacy in plant sciences and self-efficacy in STEM as well as help bridge the gap between people doing science and learning science.

PI: Rupesh Kariyat, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Recent statistics show that there is a huge demand for skilled workforce in plant and agricultural sciences. Most studies and opinions in this regard have focused on recruitment efforts at undergraduate, graduate and post graduate levels, often ignoring a fast-growing majority – the high school students. Steering these fresh graduates into plant, agricultural and food sciences will be a massive boost to addressing the current shortage of workforce in this area. To compound these issues, the teachers responsible for guiding and educating this young workforce have received little attention. And, we are also aware that research and education in these fields lack students from minorities and underrepresented groups.

Through the Plant BLOOME award, I plan to address these concerns by recruiting plant science teachers (Agriculture and Plant Biology) from the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District (PSJA ISD) in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas to participate in a boot camp style intense workshop at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). UTRGV and the Rio Grande Valley are on the border of USA-Mexico and have a very high Hispanic population. In fact, UTRGV has >90% Hispanic student enrollment. PSJA ISD is a state and national leader in creating more academic opportunities for all students, and the school district offers pre-kindergarten through twelfth-grade curriculum with around 32,000 students. The main objective of the project is to train high school teachers in plant sciences from PSJA ISD and assist them in updating their curriculum using active learning methodologies and hands-on work experience. The basic outline of the workshop includes classroom-based lecture style teaching during mornings (8:30 am to 12:00 pm), followed by a hands-on experiential learning exercise (lab/field). Each day will be led by a faculty with expertise in one of the major areas of Agriculture, Food, and Plant Sciences. After six days, the faculty and the teachers will sit together and revise the current curriculum to include a hands-on activity. The eight teachers will receive a certificate of completion, and distance learning credits applicable towards their annual review and promotion at PSJA ISD. The long-term impact of the project will be evaluated based on the student interest in agriculture and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related career fields (for example, using statistics from PSJA ISD, UTRGV, and other post-secondary enrollments). In addition, the size/student numbers taught will be tracked to gauge the number of students introduced to plant science-agriculture related topics.

The project is unique since this is the first ever attempt by UTRGV and PSJA ISD to coordinate a workshop that focuses on teacher education in plant sciences focused curriculum, the high school teachers get an opportunity to work and learn from faculty members that conduct cutting edge research in various aspects of plant sciences (insect-plant interactions, plant physiology, weed ecology, soil biology, food microbiology, and agroecology), and the workshop will generate critical data on student and teacher learning outcomes to be used for further improvement of curriculum.

2018 Recipients

PI: Larry Blanton, PhD, North Carolina State University

The NC State BLOOME team is very excited about our project, “Widely Accessible Virtual Reality Exhibits and Workshops for Plant Biology Education.” Our team consists of Larry Blanton, Professor of Plant Biology and PI, who will be responsible for project oversight, content, reporting, and assessment; Colin Keenan, a recent graduate from our Master’s program, who conceived of the project and will be responsible for coding, training, and site development; and Adam Rogers, Head of the NC State Library’s Making and Innovation Studio, who will provide expert technology support and be our liaison to the broader resources of the NC State libraries. The project benefits greatly from the extensive technology available to us through the library’s virtual reality studio.

The BLOOME project arose from Colin’s non-thesis masters project, which involved 3-D scanning of bulky herbarium specimens (seeds and fruits). As Colin thought about disseminating those scans to a broader world through virtual reality (VR), he realized that broader scope VR experiences as now proposed would be even more stimulating. Our goal is to create two experiences, one smaller-scale focused on the chloroplast and the other a larger-scale “park” of a variety of exhibits. These will be freely available for on-line access on any web-browsing device, but also support the VR experience provide by HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.

In addition to creating these experiences, the team will conduct “Basics of Virtual Reality for Plant Biologists” workshops, two on the NC State campus, one at the Southern Section ASPB meeting, and one at the national ASPB meeting. These will provide an introduction to digital specimen representation and display and strategies for incorporating VR as a means to present data or develop curriculum elements. We hope to learn valuable lessons not only about the application of VR technology itself, but also concerning valid means of assessing the effectiveness of the experiences.

PI: Jessica Savage, Ph.D., University of Minnesota in Duluth

For many people, including myself, fascination with plants began in our backyards because plants serve an important role in our understanding where we are and how the world is changing. It is for this reason that there is a growing population of the public engaged in monitoring phenology in their “backyards” and an increasing number of citizen science programs focused on compiling phenology data in online databases. Despite the importance of these connections between plant biologists and the public, many citizen science programs rely on unidirectional communication, such as collecting data for a researcher or educating about phenology.

The goal of our BLOOME project is to take the next step in this relationship and create a program where the public is involved in the scientific process from beginning to end. We want to empower citizen scientists to explore their own questions. We plan to facilitate two-way interactions in which researchers and educators provide training in plant biology and plant phenology, and citizens participate in experimental design, data collection, and exploration of their own data. Along with creating public displays and running two workshops for educators, we will design openly available curriculum for educators and the general public that will guide learners in visualizing and understanding phenology data from their local community. This is a collaborative project between Erin O’Connell, a graduate student, Ryan Hueffmeier, the Program Director at Boulder Lake Environmental Center, and Jessica Savage, an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota in Duluth.

We are excited about this project because it addresses a growing need to take citizen science to the next level, not only involving the public in data collection, but also allowing them to become the researcher. We hope this program can serve as a model for place-based learning about plant biology in other regions.

PI: Rupesh Kariyat, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a unicellular micro-green alga that retains many of the features of green plants and of the common ancestor of plants and animals, although its lineage diverged from land plants over one billion years ago. It is a model for studying photosynthesis and elucidating eukaryotic flagella and basal body structure and functions. More recently, Chlamydomonas research has been developed for bioremediation purposes, generation of biofuels and has led to breakthroughs in Optogenetics. Currently, there are few teaching tools available via the Chlamydomonas Resource Center which barely scratch the surface of what could be taught using Chlamydomonas to K16 Biology students. My BLOOME project aims to develop Chlamydomonas, an under-utilized teaching tool, into a powerful popular teaching tool which will complement existing plant science teaching strategies.

The ASPB Plant BLOOME award and the support that I have received from the CRC will help me to design ten Chlamydomonas– based new, inexpensive, hands-on activities for K16 Biology education. These activities will be incorporated in Biology classes in nine schools and in two local universities in Georgia and, to teach a new upper level “green” molecular lab course at the University of West Georgia (UWG). The project will target approximately 1,250 students. Designed lab activities will be disseminated via ASPB, Plantae, CRC and my UWG research laboratory websites and at the ASPB and NABT meetings. We will share with the west Georgia community how “pond scum” is used by plant biologists, neuroscientists, medical and renewable energy researchers via the free Wolf Science Cafe events in Carrollton, GA. 90% of Biology students want to pursue careers in health-allied field and, seldom appreciate plant biology in their curriculum as they are not shown the intra- and inter-disciplinary nature of the 21st century Biological science. I am greatly appreciative of the ASPB Plant BLOOME award as it will help to make students appreciate plants and, demonstrate to them the intra- and interdisciplinary nature of Plant Biology. Above all, I am super-excited about the Plant BLOOME award as it will help to make Chlamydomonas (“green yeast”), a “rock star” to plant biology educators.

2016 Recipients

Lead PI: Anna Elisabeth Backhaus University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom

Coinvestigator: Isotta Reichenbach University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom

The goal of the Plantocomics project is the creation of a comic book series that communicates plant biology research to children ages 9 to 12. The fundamental idea is simple: to find cutting edge plant biology research projects and transform their process, concepts, or outcomes into a visually and mentally stimulating format that engages young readers. The fascinating content, beautiful illustrations, and appropriate level of complexity of the comics will stimulate children’s interest in plants at a young age.

The investigators want to explain plant research projects to children because they believe that young minds are capable of and will be inspired by learning about the intricacies of what plants can do. Anna and Isotta also want to expose children to the concept of using primary research to become informed citizens. More specifically, the comics will explain topics that would never be part of a standard school curriculum. They will provide a glimpse into real biology so children (and adults) can see that although photosynthesis may be a familiar beginning, plant biology research goes much further than that.

The comics are intended to make children aware of the overwhelming importance of plants for nearly every aspect of human life and to increase their plant biology literacy. Children reading the comics should feel encouraged to use their natural inquisitiveness in biology to discover that further study of plant biology could be very desirable and fun and can lead to a future career. To ensure that the comics are suitable for specific learning levels and interesting for the targeted audience, the investigators will develop an evaluation plan with classroom teachers.

To enhance successful dissemination of the comic book series, each book will be translated into multiple languages and distributed online via ASPB and other channels. Anna and Isotta also will present them at the upcoming Frankfurt Book Fair (one of the world’s largest) and at Plant Biology 2017 as well as at other ASPB outreach venues. The comics could become a viable part of biology school lessons anywhere in the world but may also be found as a favorite title on a bookshelf in a child’s room.

An additional benefit of this project is its unique cross-curricular integration of knowledge. Anna is a student in the School of Biological Sciences and Isotta studies in the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia

Lead PI: Erich Grotewold The Ohio State University

Plants play a critical role in our daily lives. From serving as the foundation of our food system to contributing to biotechnology solutions for global challenges, the importance of plants is undeniable. Yet, plants are often taken for granted by the general public and take a back seat to the allure of studying animals in K–12 education. To raise awareness about the importance of plants and bring them into the limelight in science education, it is important that teachers are provided with high-quality, engaging activities that complement their curriculum and align with state and national standards.

This project will bring together plant researchers and education experts in the development of resources designed to engage students and the public in learning about how plant research impacts our lives. The project will be accomplished through a partnership among PhD fellows, faculty, and staff at the Center for Applied Plant Sciences (CAPS; http://caps.osu.edu/) at The Ohio State University and educators from the Center of Science and Industry (COSI; http://www.cosi. org/) in Columbus, Ohio.

The resources developed through this proposal will reinforce plant science concepts for both the general public and students in grades 6–12. Concepts such as plant-based biotechnology, food systems, agriculture, and climate change will be highlighted.

Funds from this grant will allow the development of two sets of resources:

  • Four 3- to 5-minute educational videos that will be available to educators and the general public Education Forum
  • An interactive videoconferencing (IVC) program offered through COSI, which will remotely connect plant researchers, educators, and students for a live hour-long program. The IVC program will be developed for middle and high school classrooms and piloted in central Ohio.

These resources will reinforce important science concepts while exploring global challenges and current research related to plant science. The IVC program and extension activities will engage students in hands-on investigations, discussions, and demonstrations that promote critical thinking. The educational videos will condense the core messages presented in the IVC program into fun, fast-paced mini-lessons that will be made available as a free online resource for students, teachers, and the general public via the CAPS website. These new resources will complement, expand on, and provide an opportunity to promote existing education materials currently offered by other plant science organizations such as the Wisconsin Fast Plants Program, Indiana University, and Science Forward.

Evaluation results from the pilot phase will be used to refine program materials before making them available to schools throughout the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Use of the resources developed through this project will lead to an increase in plant science knowledge, positive attitudes toward learning science, and awareness of plant science career options.

Lead PI: Mark Eastburn Riverside School, Princeton, NJ

Mark first developed a passion for plant science while serving as an agroforestry volunteer in the U.S. Peace Corps, where he started a reforestation program that brought iguana ranching and sustainable land management practices to his site in rural Panama. In more recent years, Mark has been involved in an ongoing study of population genetics with box turtles, in collaboration with scientists at Princeton University, and has worked with the Princeton Neuroscience Institute to guide his students through the process of peer review for the online neuroscience journal Frontiers for Young Minds. Mark looks forward to sharing his experiences with the Plant BLOOME grant through his website at http://www.plantsandstudents.com.

This project, Plant STEM for K–12 Education, will incorporate STEM into activities that encourage children at eight public schools to learn more about plants’ roles in ecosystems and their uses for medicine, materials, and fuels. The activities also will help students gain basic literacy in the promises and potential perils of cloning and genetic modification.

The team will plant native gardens at six schools in Princeton and Trenton, New Jersey, with species that students Mark Eastburn will research and describe, connected via Bluetooth beacons, and integrate into a customized mobile app that will allow community members to learn more about each plant. Next they will establish three outdoor carnivorous plant habitats and three mobile carnivorous plant nurseries that will allow children in eight schools to discover ways that research into these species has informed discoveries in neuroscience, liquid-repellent surface materials, and medical adhesives. When winter comes and outdoor plants go dormant, students will investigate biodiversity in the world’s tropical regions, simulate how animal species depend on rainforest plants for survival, and make clones from common houseplants. In the spring, students at two area high schools will lead an investigation into genetic modification that will be shared with elementary and middle schools.

In total, this project will reach 4,294 students in grades K–12, will serve as a model to be implemented anywhere in the world, and will make available online for teachers and students lesson plans, instructional videos, blog posts, and real-world data aligned with Next Generation Science Standards (www.nextgenscience. org/) and the 12 Principles of Plant Biology (http://bit.ly/ 29FlUpH). Assessments will demonstrate what students have learned, and through ongoing (and sustainable) implementation, future scientists will understand the importance of plant biology in our modern world, advocate for plant research, build skills with new technologies, and facilitate communication between diverse groups of students.

Coinvestigators: Elena M. Kramer and Molly Edwards, Harvard University

Science IRL is a YouTube series that provides the missing link between textbook science concepts and scientific research in real life, using plant biology as the exemplar. Science IRL aims to impact viewer attitudes toward science in the following ways:

  • Increase their enthusiasm for science
  • Favorably change their perception of scientists
  • Increase their familiarity with a variety of science careers, especially in plant biology.

Under the guidance of Professor Elena Kramer, first year graduate student Molly Edwards writes, produces, hosts, and releases monthly Science IRL episodes with the help of a creative team. Science IRL has already released a six-episode first season and is currently in production of a second season at Harvard.

During the Plant BLOOME grant year, Science IRL will create 10 new episodes that feature guest plant scientists at Harvard and other leading plant biology institutions across the country. The episodes will correspond to ASPB’s 12 Principles of Plant Biology and are written with a high school audience in mind but are available to all on YouTube. The episodes will be disseminated to New England high school classrooms with the help of Harvard’s Life Sciences Outreach (LSO) program; on the website of the Amgen Biotech Experience, a curriculum that is implemented by more than 70,000 students nationally and internationally; and by leveraging the considerable public relations power of Harvard and the other institutions the team visits. Evaluation of the learning objectives will consist of a pre–post observational study in New England high school classrooms implemented with the assistance of LSO and Harvard’s Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning. With the production equipment purchased and the collaborator network built with ASPB funding, Science IRL will be able to continue its mission long after the grant year is over.

Anyone can check out the existing Science IRL videos already produced and posted on the YouTube channel (http:// bit.ly/1UcauJv). The team will be releasing a few more episodes this summer, and then the Plant BLOOME episodes will begin in September. In addition to posting updates on Plantae.org, Science IRL shares announcements and behind-the-scenes photos on its Facebook page (http://bit. ly/1U5OleB).

2015 Recipients

Lead PI: Oriana Chafe, Sierra Streams Institute

Coinvestigator: Joanne Hild, Sierra Streams Institute

Sierra Streams Institute (SSI) proposes to provide high school students with a curriculum that demonstrates the concept of global climate change through its observable impacts on the plant communities found in their schoolyard. The overall goal is to use plant phenology as a means to transform the issue of climate change from an abstraction to an observable reality for young people in order to produce a generation that is equipped to manage this global challenge.

With many years of experience in hands-on, standards-based science education and curriculum development, SSI will create a curriculum that illuminates coupled systems between plants and climate; develops students’ observation skills, particularly of local plants; and introduces them to the role of the citizen scientist in expanding global data collection efforts to shed light on longterm and worldwide trends. The curriculum will include lectures, fieldwork, data entry and analysis, nature journaling, and the creation of field guides to local plants, providing peer-to-peer learning opportunities as students share their discoveries.

The primary evaluation will follow a pilot implementation of the curriculum in two local high school classes located 20 miles apart at contrasting elevations and ecosystems. Students in the pilot program will respond to pre- and postproject surveys designed using best available practices in environmental education. Participating teachers will be surveyed regarding project implementation, and the curriculum will be modified as necessary in response to the outcome of the evaluation.

The project will result in a curriculum guide, nature journals, and a field guide that will be disseminated through established communication networks of the applicant and partners, as well as through presentations and articles submitted to recognized environmental education conferences and publications and through outreach to local media. Copies of the field guide will be made available to hikers along a local trail.

On learning that she had received the award, Oriana stated, “We are excited to create a platform for teaching accessible plant biology and climate change curriculum by bringing phenology into the classroom. Through the botanical lens, students will have the opportunity to study and share their observations of shifting ecological interactions. We thank ASPB for their support of our project and advancement of plant science education.”

Lead PI: Marcia Harrison Pitaniello, Marshall University

The primary educational goal of this program is to broaden access to plant biology information through museum-type exhibits developed by students in a service learning plant physiology course. Quality plant science exhibits are not generally accessible to the Huntington community and southern West Virginia.

The Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences is 50 miles from Huntington, and other science museums are over 100 miles away in Kentucky and Ohio. In addition, these museums offer little plant biology content. The proposed exhibit will be developed for a general public audience but also will include educational materials (e.g., videos, activities, games) that can be disseminated online. The proposed exhibit development through a service learning course will provide unique professional development training for Marshall University biology students. The project objectives are to

  • develop interactive exhibits to educate and stimulate public interest in plant biology
  • offer a service learning plant physiology course that will develop the materials for each exhibit in collaboration with a local organization
  • display each exhibit at local venues annually and establish other venues in West Virginia
  • broaden dissemination of exhibit content using Internet resources, presentations, and publications.

The PI’s range of experience in fulfilling these objectives includes

  • developing educational resources for a plant physiology course
  • presenting materials at community events, on YouTube, for the PlantED Digital Library (http://planted.botany. org/), and at conferences
  • working as part of the West Virginia State Leadership Team for the Development of Next Generation of Science Standards
  • piloting preliminary project components at a community event for the May 18, 2015, Fascination of Plants Day.

A new website (http://bit. ly/1eLjEeM) with video to accompany the display is available already. New material will be added to this site as it becomes available.

Marcia shared this about her Plant BLOOME experience: “I found that the process of applying for the BLOOME grant helped me rethink my outreach approach for plant biology. I focused on connecting more with the local community while still working on Internet resources for dissemination. Physically making a prototype plant biology display and participating in a local event allowed me to think through what needs to be done to make high quality displays that plant physiology students can routinely use for outreach projects.”

Lead PI: Gloria Muday, Wake Forest University Coinvestigators: Carole Gibson and Hanya E. Chrispeels

Tomatoes are an excellent model system for teaching concepts of genetics because of their vast diversity in traits such as color, size, shape, and flavor; their familiarity as a food; and their importance as an agricultural species. For the past five years, the Muday team has successfully implemented a service learning program (SLP) that teaches genetics using heirloom tomatoes in an active-learning curriculum. This SLP trains undergraduate students enrolled in a non–science major introductory biology course in the SLP curriculum and takes them to middle and high school classrooms to lead younger students through the curriculum.

Although this curriculum has been effective in teaching undergraduates genetics and biotechnology, which has been documented through publications, the assessments have demonstrated that this curriculum is not leading the students to make connections to real-world issues that build on plant genetics. So the team will retain this effective model of undergraduates teaching more than 1,300 local students each year but plans to update the curriculum to help students better see how plant genetics is pertinent to their world. Specifically, the project will

  • connect the curriculum to the increasing need for droughttolerant crop plants
  • tie the curriculum to current research in the Muday lab by using mutants altered in anthocyanin content and root architecture, which include those that overproduce these healthy antioxidants and appear a striking shade of purple
  • explain the technology of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and traditional plant breeding so students can make informed decisions about this technology
  • use the 5E instructional model (engage, explore, explain, elaborate [or extend], evaluate) as a pedagogical basis for the curriculum.

With these changes, the team predicts that students will realize the same learning gains seen with the previous curriculum but will have an increased understanding of the relevance of plant genetics to solving real-world problems, an important goal for educating students to be scientifically literate and to appreciate the importance of plant biology.

Gloria explained, “With prior support from ASPB, we developed an exercise that teaches plant genetics to Wake Forest University students, who learn through teaching local middle and high school students. The middle and high school students benefit from participation in this case study exercise, in which they learn genetic principles through mutant and heirloom tomatoes that are memorable examples. The support of a Plant BLOOME grant will allow us to expand this curriculum from Mendelian genetics to molecular genetics as we teach students about how changes in climate affect plant growth and development and about the potential of plant biotechnology to improve plants to deal with the resulting environmental stress. In today’s society, GMO crops receive much criticism, and it is important to teach both secondary and university students how these crops are made and their potential to positively impact agriculture so that the students can make informed decisions about this technology.”

Lead PI: Eva Strand, University of Idaho

Coinvestigators: Karen Launchbaugh and graduate student Justin J. Trujillo

This project will create a user friendly field guide, with accompanying K–12 lesson plans, for identifying Idaho grasses and grasslike plants, intended for K–16 educators and students, ranchers, landowners, recreationists, and nature enthusiasts in Idaho and adjacent states. In the form of both a printed book and an offline app for iPhones and Androids, the guide will include colorful images showing detailed characteristics and vegetative features of each grass, an easy-to-use dichotomous key, and information on each plant’s history, forage value, fire resistance, and other details.

The team will select, locate, and photograph 60 individual grasses, compile information about each plant, design a user friendly identification key for people with a limited background in botany, and develop K–12 lesson plans. Working with an app developer, they will create an offline app identical in content to the field guide. This dual resource will meet the needs of land managers making economic decisions regarding livestock production and field treatments; university students in wildlife and range sciences conducting class exercises and field research; K–12 educators conducting field botany excursions, teaching the use of dichotomous keys, and teaching ecosystem studies; and recreationists engaged in nature study.

Both book and app will be distributed via the University of Idaho Rangeland Center and the Idaho Rangeland Resource Commission. The guide will be promoted in each center’s website and newsletters, as well as to extension offices, 4-H groups, local media, and school districts.

To evaluate the guide’s functionality, guidebooks will include addressed, postage-paid survey postcards, and the app will provide a link to a Qualtrics online survey. Selected individuals from each intended user group will be interviewed before, during, and after using the field guide to gather feedback for use in improving subsequent editions. Lesson plans will be tested and evaluated by teaching staff at the McCall Outdoor Science School.

Eva stated, “Our group of plant enthusiasts at the University of Idaho Rangeland Center thrilled to discover the funding opportunity provided by ASPB and Plant BLOOME to promote public awareness of the role of plants. We had been looking for a while to find a way to spread the word about the importance of grasses and grasslike plants for rangeland ecosystems in Idaho and across the globe. Funding from ASPB and Plant BLOOME catalyzes a project that integrates and leverages efforts by the University of Idaho Rangeland Center, the Idaho Rangeland Resource Commission, and the McCall Outdoor Science School focusing on K–12 education, teacher training, and graduate work at the University of Idaho. Long term, the field guide and app will be distributed by the University of Idaho Rangeland Center, a group of scientists, educators, and practitioners working to advance the ecology and economy of western rangelands.” Eva’s team will create and maintain a web page directly related to the development of the Field Guide to Grasses and Grasslike Plants of Idaho. This project page will reside on the University of Idaho Rangeland Center website (http://bit.ly/1LWSmN3)