ABRC
ABRC works with the education community, creating partnerships with organizations, and making our extensive experience and Arabidopsis resources available to teachers and students. In addition to providing our own teaching modules, we develop partnerships where we can use our resources as a starting point to help our partners develop their own ideas. Check out our current and past education partners below. If you are interested in partnering with ABRC, please contact us at ABRC@osu.edu for more information.
Araport developed week-long learning modules for high school and college biology courses. The materials include lesson plans, worksheets, posters, videos, and tests. The lessons address specific aspects of plant biology (e.g. photosynthesis or DNA transcription), and incorporate the use of the Araport web site to encourage development of bioinformatics, data mining, and statistical analysis skills as applied to modern genome science.
Circleville City Schools ABRC has participated in Circleville Middle School's annual STEM Day event and hosted Circleville students for a tour of our facilities and hands-on activities.
Columbus City Schools Curriculum Quality Control Council has approved ABRC’s Greening the Classroom modules and ABRC has served as a host site for the annual Breakfast of Science Champions program for Columbus City Schools middle school students.
The Center of Science and Industry (COSI) has a commitment to the community and a desire to educate learners of all ages. COSI offers a rich array of curriculum enhancing programs, including a new program focused on plant science Plant Solutions for Global Problems. ABRC participates in a number of outreach programs at COSI, including the annual Big Science Celebration.
Franklin Park Conservatory offers educational experiences in the areas of gardening, cooking and culinary arts. Programming includes classes for all ages, as well as school and outreach programs. ABRC has facilitated hands-on activities at the Conservatory's annual Pollinator Palooza event, and served as a program partner for the new afterschool program Green STEM Girls.
Hilliard City Schools ABRC participated in Hilliard's JW Reason Family Science Extravaganza in 2015 and 2016, and facilitated a teacher workshop for the district in 2019.
OARDC The Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center is part of The Ohio State University's College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.
Olentangy Local Schools ABRC has hosted students from the Olentangy Local School District at our facilities, as well as provided in-class activities that demonstrate Mendelian genetics and given career presentations for middle school students.
Plants in Motion was developed by Roger Hangarter, a retired biology professor from Indiana University and an award winning researcher and educator. Hangarter’s award winning Plants in Motion website contains over 50 videos of plants, including many featuring Arabidopsis. The resources on Plants in Motion are free for nonprofit educational use. Hangarter, along with Dennis DeHart of Buffalo State, State University of New York, created an art installation called sLowlife that opened at the School of Fine Arts Gallery at Indiana University. The installation, which includes videos of Arabidopsis as well as live plants, has been displayed at a number of venues around the country including The United States Botanic Garden and The Chicago Botanic Garden.
PlantingScience is an online platform that brings together scientist mentors with teams of middle and high school students conducting plant research in their classrooms. The online learning community is a collaboration among scientific societies and education organizations.
Plant Tracer is a National Science Foundation funded program that develops inquiry-based laboratories that allow students to participate in authentic research studies on gravitropism (movement of a plant in response to gravity) and circumnutation (movements of the growing portions of plants to form spirals or ellipses).
Pickerington Local Schools ABRC provided an in-depth teacher professional development workshop to teachers in the Pickerington Local School District, demonstrating how Arabidopsis can be used to teach a variety of science concepts in K-12 education.
The Science Education Council of Ohio (SECO) ABRC has presented sessions and exhibited at SECO's annual Science Symposium.
Dr. Steve Hovick is an assistant professor in the Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology at The Ohio State University. His research focuses on the ecology and evolution of weedy and invasive species.
Teaching Tools in Plant Biology, published by the American Society of Plant Biologists, combines peer-reviewed research-based content with flexible presentation components that can be used alone or integrated into lesson plans. Teaching Tools makes it easy for teachers to integrate resources into their curricula by providing a short essay introducing each topic, PowerPoint slides, and suggested readings.
Worthington School District ABRC has facilitated hands-on activities for students and their families as a part of the annual Worthington Science Day event.
Westerville City Schools ABRC has facilitated hands-on activities for students and their families as a part of the annual Westerville Starry Night event.