Abstract Detail

Education and Outreach

Schenk, John [1], Mowbray, Rachel [2], Evans, Colleen [2], Glaze, Amanda [4].

Actively Engaging Student Visitors to Herbaria.

Not only are herbaria the foundation of botanical science, they are often the first, or even the only, access point students and visitors have to plant sciences. Maximizing learning outcomes is therefore consequential to providing our visitors with an understanding of what herbaria do, their importance in society, and how they will continue to play a critical role in answering scientific questions in the future. Given the vast set of collections that they hold, herbaria are rich in materials that can be used to engage visitors. We took advantage of herbarium collections and combined them with current pedagogical approaches to design a teaching module that achieved a set of goals and learning outcomes to actively engaged our visitors. The teaching module applied an inquiry-based method to answer scientific questions for visitors from K10 to sophomores in college. The module provided visitors with a firsthand experience investigating what herbaria are, why they are useful, what a herbarium sheet is and what data it contains, what the structures of a flower are, and the relationship of plants and animals in a plant’s life cycle. Visitors, therefore, self-discovered exactly why herbaria are important. We present the teaching module and provide resources for other herbaria to implement to engage their visitors, including a Power Point presentation, the student handout, take-home questions for teachers that follow Bloom's taxonomy, student learning outcomes and module goals, and additional resources for teachers to conduct follow-up exercises and further engage their students.

Related Links:
GSU Herbarium webpage
GAS Herbarium webpage

1 - Georgia Southern University, Department Of Biology, 4324 Old Register Road, Biological Sciences Building, Statesboro, GA, 30458, United States
2 - Georgia Southern University, 4324 Old Register Road, Department of Biology, Biological Sciences Buildin, Statesboro, GA, 30458, United States
3 - Georgia Southern University, 4324 Old Register Road, Department of Biology, Biological Sciences Buildin, Statesboro, GA, 30458, United States
4 - Georgia Southern Universityn, College of Education, 4126 College of Education Building, Statesboro, GA, 30458, United States

Keywords:
teaching
Science education
Pedagogy
Active Learning
Discovery learning
herbarium
Outreach.

Presentation Type: Poster
Session: P, Education and Outreach Poster Section
Location: Grand Ballroom - Exhibit Hall/Mayo Civic Center
Date: Monday, July 23rd, 2018
Time: 5:30 PM This poster will be presented at 6:15 pm. The Poster Session runs from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm. Posters with odd poster numbers are presented at 5:30 pm, and posters with even poster numbers are presented at 6:15 pm.
Number: PEO002
Abstract ID:208
Candidate for Awards:None