Friday, February 21, 2020

Under the leadership of Dr. Melissa McCartney (Principal Investigator from FIU), Dr. Hong Liu and Dr. Javier Francisco-Ortega (both co-Principal Investigators and FIU-Fairchild Faculty) and as part of the NSF funded Incubator Grant under the Research Coordination Networks in Undergraduate Biology Education program, February 14th and 15th  marked the inception of the Plant Blindness workshop at Fairchild. Prominent botanists and educators from several prestigious universities and botanic gardens across the country convened to brainstorm an action plan to alleviate plant blindness in undergraduate students in other higher education institutions. Combining expertise in both botanical sciences and educational research, the group aims to develop creative, innovative, and scalable hands-on botanical experiences for use in all undergraduate fields of study. During the last three years FIU faculty and Garden researchers have developed a pilot program to explore potential mechanisms to alleviate plant blindness among freshmen enrolled in FIU. The Garden magazine, has provided an avenue for this team to share their results with the community (click here to read this article).

Workshop participants:

Alisa Hove (Professor)Warren Wilson College
Bin Zhu (Professor)University of Hartford
Brett Jestrow (Director of Collections)Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
Brian Sidoti (Fairchild Challenge Program Coordinator)Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
Chad Husby (Botanical Horticulturist)Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
Chris Baraloto (Professor/Director)FIU International Center for Tropical Botany
Dennis Stevenson (Vice President Cullman Senior Curator)New York Botanical Garden
Gordon Uno (ProfessorUniversity of Oklahoma
Heather Griscom (Professor)James Madison University
Hong Liu (Professor)FIU-Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
Javier Francisco-Ortega (Professor)FIU-Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
Jessica Colón (Undergraduate Student)Florida International University
Jonathan Flickinger (PhD Candidate)FIU-Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
Kathryn M. Parsley (PhD Candidate)University of Memphis
Kristine Callis-Duehl (Director of Education and Outreach)Danforth Plant Science Center, Missouri Botanical Garden
Lisa Wallace (Professor/Director of Science)Old Dominion University-Norfolk Botanic Garden
Lynn Bohs (Professor and Curator)University of Utah-Utah Museum of Natural History
Melissa McCartney (Professor)Florida International University
Nichole Tiernan (PhD Candidate)FIU-Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
Nina Rønsted (Director of Science and Conservation)National Tropical Botanic Garden
Suzanne Koptur (Professor)Florida International University