Project

Discipline

young people; Family expeditions; science education; plant breeding; global change; plant invasion

Lead
With both, our children and scientific research in plant sciences we invest in our future. PSC Plant Science Family Program is a new family-oriented outreaching program that the Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center (PSC) has initiated between 2013 - 2014 to make the sentence above alive.
Lay summary
With both, our children and scientific research in plant sciences we invest in our future. PSC Plant Science Family Program is a new family-oriented outreaching program that the Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center (PSC) has initiated between 2013 - 2015 to make the sentence above alive. The program aimed to make the research of our network accessible, to inspire young people to pursue a scientific career and to raise awareness for plant-relevant issues and their importance for everyday life. From 2013  - 2014 the PSC carried out 7 expeditions and 8 workshops and 7 classroom trainings with a number of participants of +520.  Topics of the expedition were: “Plant Breeding for the Future”, “Dealing with Global Change in the Swiss Alps” and “Understanding Plant Invasion” to raise awareness about current trends and challenges in plant science research. We wanted to show the young people (age 8  – 16) and their families how plant scientist work. The  expeditions included Student Labs, Experiments, Future Workshops and a Geocaching Trail. Together plant scientists, the young people and their families spent between 1 - 2 days carrying out several scientific experiments and both part contributing to an open bi-directional dialogue in a very intense level of exchange. The program has been established by the Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center (PSC). Founded in 1998, the PSC advocates plant research and education for more than 10 years. The PSC is a competence center of plant scientists based at three universities in Switzerland: the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, the University of Zurich and the University of Basel. Program development was carried out by Dr. Melanie Paschke and Dr. Manuela Dahinden.

Direct link to Lay Summary

Last update: 15.02.2015

Communication	Title	Media	Place	Year

Number	Title	Start	Funding scheme

With both, our children and scientific research in plant sciences we invest in our future. PSC Plant Science Family Program is a family-oriented outreaching program that the Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center (PSC) has initiated between 2013 - 2015 to make the sentence above alive. The program aimed to make the research of our network accessible, to inspire young people to pursue a scientific career and to raise awareness for plant-relevant issues and their importance for everyday life. With the PSC Family Program, the PSC wanted to cumulate its various outreach activities in a format that is dedicated towards a target group with large multiplier effect for the future: the younger generation.From 2013 - 2014 the PSC carried out 7 expeditions and 8 workshops and 7 classroom trainings with a number of participants of +520. Topics of the expedition were: “Plant Breeding for the Future”, “Dealing with Global Change in the Swiss Alps” and “Understanding Plant Invasion” to raise awareness about current trends and challenges in plant science research. We wanted to show the young people (age 8 - 16) and their families how plant scientist work. The 1- to 2-day expeditions included Student Labs, Experiments, Future Workshops and a Geocaching Trail. Together plant scientists, the young people and their families spent between 1 - 2 days carrying out several scientific experiments and both part contributing to an open bi-directional dialogue in a very intense level of exchange.Additionally the PSC also contributed within the program to International Fascination of Plant Days (2012, 2013, 2014). Due to the high awareness of the public towards this day we used the opportunity to link our family workshops and classroom training within this channel focusing on both AGORA topics: plant breeding and global change and its implications.An important additional opportunity to present current research on the topic of plant breeding was our involvement in Scientifica 2013 with more than +3000 participants presenting the discussion around modern plant breeding methods in a science café.The program has been established by the Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center (PSC). Founded in 1998, the PSC advocates plant research and education for more than 10 years. The PSC is a competence center of plant scientists based at three universities in Switzerland: the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, the University of Zurich and the University of Basel.Program development was carried out by Dr. Melanie Paschke and Dr. Manuela Dahinden.