Outreach Activities

Scientists do a reasonably good job of presenting their work to others in the same field through professional meetings and journals. However, it can take a long time and much effort for current research to enlighten and benefit the general public. We believe that, in addition to our research activities, we have a responsibility that embraces educating the public. We can do a better job of presenting our work to segments of the population that we do not interact with routinely through outreach.

Outreach can occur through many venues. It can take the form of internships, workshops, short courses and public lectures of various lengths. The media through which outreach can occur is also varied, ranging from oral presentations to written lab manuals, educational movies and web pages to name a few. We believe our research efforts in exploring the rice genome are, and will continue to be, very important to all people. We hope to use various media along with these pages to help extend the understanding and expedite the communication of our work.

The core of our outreach activity is focused on interactions with high school students and teachers. These efforts break down broadly into two groups that include student internships carried out in the lab at Cornell, and classroom workshops engaged in principally at the regional schools.

The High School Lab Modules that we conduct each year are designed to satisfy numerous goals. The underlying theme for all of them is to provide the means by which every student from participating high schools may understand current molecular genetics technology taught to them within the Living Environment curriculum of NY State. This material is required of each graduating high school student.

The high school workshop efforts, bolstered by a supplemental grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), has grown dramatically since our first effort at Groton High school in 2002. Paula Jones, a high school biology teacher, initially at Groton and now at Homer High School, has been a key collaborator helping this portion of the outreach program to accomplish it's objectives. In preparation for classroom activities, she prepared a rice-growing kit and protocol and draft teaching materials for middle school teachers.

Want to become part of the Plant Genome Research Program's outreach activities at Cornell and the Boyce Thomson Institute?

Please visit http://bti.cornell.edu/pgrp/index.php for more information about summer internships available to both high school and undergraduate students. These internships offer exciting opportunities to get involved with plant genome research in both the laboratory and the field.