Outreach, Sharing Knowledge and Resources
By Karen GuinWith torrential rains in the forecast, Tim Metcalf anticipated that few would venture out to the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory’s annual open house in February. But to his amazement, more than 200 people traveled through the deluge to tour the remarkable greenhouse and pose questions about plants that they had been wondering about for years.
“The visitors, sponsors, students running the displays, and staff had an incredible time,” recalls Metcalf, a plant biology staff member who manages the facility. So much so that a number of visitors, including a teacher, garden club member, and Sacramento tour organizer, promptly scheduled tours for their groups.
Photo: Last year more than 600 students from schools and summer camps from Stockton to Fairfield, Calif., visited the Botanical Conservatory, which houses more than 2,500 specimens. Here manager Tim Metcalf (second from left) leads a student tour.
Although the Botanical Conservatory functions primarily as a teaching and research resource for the campus, it has assumed a significant role in educating the public about plants. Outreach activities, such as the conservatory tours, often evolve from teaching and research efforts, says Joyce Gutstein, associate director of the campus’s Public Service Research Program. They grow from special resources and are spurred by student, staff, and faculty interest, and by public demand. Such is the case for many of the outreach activities in the Division of Biological Sciences.
The UC Davis Herbarium, operated through Plant Biology and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, is a unique resource with a long history of public service. The facility contains more than 200,000 plant specimens that have been identified, dried, pressed, mounted, and systematically organized. Director Ellen Dean says the facility is an invaluable resource for UC Cooperative Extension agents throughout the state, the general public, and students and faculty members on campus. About 700 people drop by each year for assistance in plant identification. For example, one local resident wanted help in identifying native plants that are attractive to birds. “She wanted to reseed a marsh on her property,” recalls Dean.
Photo: Students from Holmes Junior High School in Davis work on a word puzzle at a nutrition exhibit managed by UC Davis undergraduates Sarah Nguyen (far right) Gloria Chu (second from right) as part of the Adventures in Science program.Student initiative is driving the development of Adventures in Science, a science education program for junior high school students. For the past four years, undergraduates from UC Davis have created and managed interactive science booths for students at Holmes Junior High School in Davis. The exhibits, which are designed to “bring out the fun in science,” have covered diverse topics such as nutrition and volcanoes. Jack Goldberg, lecturer in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, is the program’s faculty adviser.
Biological Sciences major Gavin Ow, who coordinates Adventures in Science, says the program has been very successful. “It’s a really rewarding experience for everyone,” he notes. “Every year we ask for feedback, and the kids say that they like all the exhibits.” The response led the UC Davis participants, which number about 40 each year, to extend their outreach this year to a second school, Davis’ Emerson Junior High.
Another program designed to stimulate interest in science among public school students, Adopt-A-Scientist, pairs UC Davis scientists with regional school teachers. The program recently united scientist Jeanette Natzle, associate professor of molecular and cellular biology, with teacher Jenny Cucinello at Florin High School in Sacramento, Calif. From 1995 to 1997, they conducted an “honors” noon science project at the high school during which Natzle shared her expertise in developmental biology with student participants. Both staff members and graduate students in the division have participated as scientists in the program as well.
For the past four years, The Biology Institute, a collaboration between UC Davis and Sacramento City College, has brought about 15 high school and middle school teachers from the greater Sacramento area to the college each summer to expand their knowledge of genetics. The program has enabled the teachers to work with faculty members from the two campuses to develop innovative high school biology laboratory exercises. This year’s participants, like those from previous years, will field-test their exercises in a classroom setting, called the Saturday Academy, during the school year.
“The teachers have especially valued the unique opportunity to get candid student feedback on their activities,” says Merna Villarejo, professor of microbiology and principal investigator of a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute that supports The Biology Institute. The teachers use the feedback to fine-tune their new exercises before incorporating them into the high school curriculum.
The University Partnership Program, also funded by a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, focuses on biology education at regional community colleges. The program enables community college instructors to take sabbaticals at UC Davis. Each instructor develops a plan that allows for “intellectual renewal” and involvement in introductory biology at the university level. They use the experience to modernize the biology curriculum at their college so that it more closely aligns with the UC Davis curriculum. “The goal is to enhance overall instruction in biology and to ensure that students who transfer to UC Davis are appropriately prepared,” says Villarejo.
This summer, microbiologist Doug Nelson shared his expertise and research on the microbiology of deep-sea hydrothermal vents with high school teachers from Pennsylvania and Washington during a research expedition off the Washington and Oregon coasts. The expedition included 10 dives, each to a depth of approximately 1.75 miles, with the submersible vehicle ALVIN, operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Mass. “The teachers participated in surface-ship aspects of the research of the scientists from around the country, including my own,” he says. They also attended lectures by Nelson and other scientists on the trip.
Photo: Guests at the UC Davis Herbarium’s open house in November 1997 tour the facility and examine some of the most interesting specimens in the collection.
Professors Donald Strong and Cathy Toft, both members of Evolution and Ecology and the Center for Population Biology, share an interest in informing the public about ecological and conservation issues. Strong says he “informs groups about the dangers of careless biological control—introducing alien species to control other alien species—through newspaper articles, radio shows, and videos.” His research on the impact of introduced Atlantic cordgrass plants on native cordgrass populations in Pacific estuaries has prompted his involvement in public education about responsible biological control of the Atlantic species.
Toft, a tropical bird enthusiast, says she recognized a need for accurate information on population genetics for private aviculturists, people who breed and raise birds, so she published the information in aviculture journals. “My goal was to educate [aviculturists] in the principles of conservation genetics so that captive populations of birds would be genetically altered as little as possible,” she explains. “The eventual goal is to have a good supply of birds that are suitable for release in the wild, perhaps to re-establish extinct populations.”
In work with a different twist, Professor Tom Rost uses his expertise on plants to identify plant materials associated with criminal and civil law cases. As a forensic botanist, he has worked with law enforcement officials and with attorneys from both plaintiff and defense sides. Rost bases his identification on the plant’s structure. “One recent case involved plant materials collected from the victim, suspects, and crime scene in a rape case,” he says. “Our analysis of the materials from the three sources showed a three-way match. The case was settled without a trial.”
UC Davis Biological Sciences Newsletter - Summer 1998