Abstract Detail

Education and Outreach

Moscoe, Lauren [1], Hanes, Margaret [2].

The Taste of Life: informal science education made delicious.

As biodiversity professionals, we are keenly aware of the extraordinary biodiversity that surrounds and inhabits us. However, despite interacting with and depending on biodiversity on a daily basis, much of society does not notice it. Of the many components of biodiversity to which society is blind, plants are a special and severe case. Our diets are largely composed of plants and plant-derived products, and food plays a special role in bringing people together and connecting us with the natural world. For these reasons we believe that food-based science outreach can be a celebratory and impactful method to engage communities about biodiversity, especially plant diversity, and empower them to protect it.
In this presentation, we introduce our innovative food-based science outreach project, Taste of Life. This initiative is a cross-disciplinary, cross-institutional collaboration to develop and deliver food-based science outreach events in Southeast Michigan. Our meals have reduced plant and biodiversity blindness in the lives of hundreds of campus and community members. We will summarize our events and describe the planning process, event structure, and impact on participants, with particular emphasis on our commitments to community partnerships, affordability, adaptability, and accessibility. We will also discuss plans for future directions, including the creation of shareable curricula that can be easily adapted based on factors such as audience, resources, and cultural context.

Related Links:
Taste of Life website

1 - No affiliation at this time
2 - Eastern Michigan University, Biology, 441 Mark Jefferson Science Complex, Ypsilanti, MI, 48197, United States

Keywords:
agrobiodiversity
biodiversity
collaboration
ethnobotany
food systems
plant blindness
science outreach.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: EO2, Education and Outreach II
Location: Tucson D/Starr Pass
Date: Tuesday, July 30th, 2019
Time: 2:30 PM
Number: EO2005
Abstract ID:437
Candidate for Awards:None