Educational Outreach
My path as a biologist began with my first encounter with insect metamorphosis, experienced during an educational outreach event in my hometown (see “Scientific Origins“). Throughout my career, I have been committed to educational outreach as a regular component of my professional activities, in which I have encouraged my students to develop their own ways to share the joy of discovery with a broader audience. I had formative outreach experiences as a young scientist, volunteering as a docent at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and the Congaree National Park in gratitude for permission to conduct research in those spaces. I was able to use spectacular, living moths to teach visitors about pheromones, pollination, conservation and biological control, while sharing the sense of wonder that I had felt as a child, encountering my first Luna moth.
[Above, freshly emerged male Luna moth on a cypress trunk, Columbia SC, May 2000].
Below, I describe 3 outreach activities in which I have participated and provide links to relevant interviews and podcasts.
My path as a biologist began with my first encounter with insect metamorphosis, experienced during an educational outreach event in my hometown (see “Scientific Origins“). Throughout my career, I have been committed to educational outreach as a regular component of my professional activities, in which I have encouraged my students to develop their own ways to share the joy of discovery with a broader audience. I had formative outreach experiences as a young scientist, volunteering as a docent at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and the Congaree National Park in gratitude for permission to conduct research in those spaces. I was able to use spectacular, living moths to teach visitors about pheromones, pollination, conservation and biological control, while sharing the sense of wonder that I had felt as a child, encountering my first Luna moth.
[Above, freshly emerged male Luna moth on a cypress trunk, Columbia SC, May 2000].
Below, I describe 3 outreach activities in which I have participated and provide links to relevant interviews and podcasts.
Interviews and Podcasts:
NPR's Science Friday, April 2, 2021
Big Biology Podcast, Episode 57, February 11, 2021
Meet the Scientist warmup
In Defense of Plants, Episode 155, April 8, 2018
NPR's Science Friday, April 2, 2021
Big Biology Podcast, Episode 57, February 11, 2021
Meet the Scientist warmup
In Defense of Plants, Episode 155, April 8, 2018
Insectapalooza
Each fall, as Halloween approaches, the Entomology Department at Cornell provides a powerful opportunity for public engagement during a one-day open-house event called “Insectapalooza”. This remarkable event attracts over 3000 visitors each year from central NY, showcasing discovery-based, translational and applied research on insects and other arthropods and highlighting Cornell's world class insect collection. while engaging the curiosity of hundreds of children and encouraging their parents to appreciate the educational power of our collective fascination with critters. Conversely, Insectapalooza provides participants with opportunities for team- and community-building, for mentoring our students in effective outreach and, of course, to rediscover our inner "bug kid". [Left, Jason Dombroskie, CUIC collection manager, with hawkmoths. Above, Callum Kingwell shares orchid bees, 2017] |
Titan Arum Blooming Events
In little more than a decade, the Titan Arum or “corpse flower” (Amorphophallus titanum) transformed from a rarely seen botanical oddity to a crowd-pleasing draw for Botanic Gardens and Plant Conservatories across the globe. There are many reasons compelling our fascination, from its enormous size and gaseous stench to its radical, observable shape-shifting as it cycles between vegetative to corm to blooming stages, along with its exotic nature, a plant barely known in its natural (and endangered) habitat. Since 2012, a pair of Titan Arums cared for by Paul Cooper have bloomed sporadically at Cornell, providing unexpectedly rich outreach opportunities for the hundreds to thousands of Ithaca-area residents who venture to campus to experience “D-Day”, the evening of its explosive bloom.
In little more than a decade, the Titan Arum or “corpse flower” (Amorphophallus titanum) transformed from a rarely seen botanical oddity to a crowd-pleasing draw for Botanic Gardens and Plant Conservatories across the globe. There are many reasons compelling our fascination, from its enormous size and gaseous stench to its radical, observable shape-shifting as it cycles between vegetative to corm to blooming stages, along with its exotic nature, a plant barely known in its natural (and endangered) habitat. Since 2012, a pair of Titan Arums cared for by Paul Cooper have bloomed sporadically at Cornell, providing unexpectedly rich outreach opportunities for the hundreds to thousands of Ithaca-area residents who venture to campus to experience “D-Day”, the evening of its explosive bloom.
[Clockwise from upper left: Paul Cooper prepares the budding corm for planting, scent collecting pump is lowered into the spathe, Karen Chang monitors appendix temperature, pollen begins to dehisce the morning-after, Geoff Broadhead provides a thermal index for the hot appendix (FLIR photo by Andy Leed) and "Team Stench 2014" wraps up data blitz: L-R Gwynne Lim, Geoff Broadhead, Trisha Basu, Kyle Martin, Monica Carvalho, Brian Worthington, Karen Chang]
This larger-than-life blossom provides opportunities to discuss how all plants reproduce (separate vs. combined sexes), how mimicry and deception work, how plant cells are capable of producing heat, and why thermogenesis might be important in a plant that lives in a tropical rainforest. My students and I have used these blooming events as team-building exercises, working around the clock to monitor orchestrated changes in scent production, heat, carbon dioxide and humidity as the giant inflorescence cycles from female to male phase over 24 hours. Conservationists often discuss the disproportionate importance of elephants and whales, so-called "charismatic megafauna", as vehicles for promoting more widespread public awareness about environmental issues, endangered species and sustainable human practices. Our hope is that the Titan Arum, as an example of "charismatic megaflora", can play a similar role in protecting endangered biomes and their complex webs of ecological interactions.
YouTube discussions of Cornell's Titan Arum bloom from November 2014:
Measuring Stench with Kyle Martin
Interview Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
This larger-than-life blossom provides opportunities to discuss how all plants reproduce (separate vs. combined sexes), how mimicry and deception work, how plant cells are capable of producing heat, and why thermogenesis might be important in a plant that lives in a tropical rainforest. My students and I have used these blooming events as team-building exercises, working around the clock to monitor orchestrated changes in scent production, heat, carbon dioxide and humidity as the giant inflorescence cycles from female to male phase over 24 hours. Conservationists often discuss the disproportionate importance of elephants and whales, so-called "charismatic megafauna", as vehicles for promoting more widespread public awareness about environmental issues, endangered species and sustainable human practices. Our hope is that the Titan Arum, as an example of "charismatic megaflora", can play a similar role in protecting endangered biomes and their complex webs of ecological interactions.
YouTube discussions of Cornell's Titan Arum bloom from November 2014:
Measuring Stench with Kyle Martin
Interview Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Trillium-Wine Pairings at Mt. Cuba Center
A major question in floral evolution concerns how and why pollinator shifts occur. For example, shifts between hummingbird and hawkmoth pollination in columbines, one of Verne Grant’s iconic examples of floral reproductive isolation, involves changes in floral color, orientation, nectar spur length and scent. However, some pollinator shifts seem less straightforward. In the genus Trillium, the primary phenotypes are white, open flowers with conventionally sweet scents (and mostly conventional bee pollinators), and wine-red colored flowers that smell like yeast, wine, rotting fruit, dung, or carrion – anything but conventional - with beetles and flies attracted to decomposing or fermenting substrates as likely pollinators.
[Below, L-R; Amy Highland, living collections manager at Mt. Cuba Center; flights of flower petals equilibrating within salsa cups; Prof. Kate Goodrich (Widener University, PA), THE FIRST PhD graduate of the Raguso lab and recent (2022) guest of the Mt. Cuba pairings course]
A major question in floral evolution concerns how and why pollinator shifts occur. For example, shifts between hummingbird and hawkmoth pollination in columbines, one of Verne Grant’s iconic examples of floral reproductive isolation, involves changes in floral color, orientation, nectar spur length and scent. However, some pollinator shifts seem less straightforward. In the genus Trillium, the primary phenotypes are white, open flowers with conventionally sweet scents (and mostly conventional bee pollinators), and wine-red colored flowers that smell like yeast, wine, rotting fruit, dung, or carrion – anything but conventional - with beetles and flies attracted to decomposing or fermenting substrates as likely pollinators.
[Below, L-R; Amy Highland, living collections manager at Mt. Cuba Center; flights of flower petals equilibrating within salsa cups; Prof. Kate Goodrich (Widener University, PA), THE FIRST PhD graduate of the Raguso lab and recent (2022) guest of the Mt. Cuba pairings course]
Since 2019, I have developed a novel outreach activity, “Trillium and Wine, Complementary Pairings”, at the Mt. Cuba Center, near Wilmington, DE, a botanic garden committed to the conservation of native plants and their habitats. One of Mt. Cuba’s core living collections includes most species of Trillium native to eastern North America, many of which are in full bloom in the Mt. Cuba gardens in late April-early May. Working in cooperation with Amy Highland, living collections manager, I lead groups of 16-20 guests through a perceptual experience inspired by the “flights” of white or red wine employed in wine tasting to highlight differences in bouquet, flavor and mouth-feel. Our guests progress from sniffing specific odorants to enjoying a miniature flight of red and white wines, then sniffing excised petals in flights of red- or white-flowered Trillium species blooming at Mt. Cuba.
Convivial interactions among group members facilitate the realization of several learning goals. First, humans differ remarkably in our chemical senses and experiences. Second, we often overlook fragrances when plants are strongly colored or grow close to the ground. Third, flowers can smell surprisingly different from each other, leading to further questions about physiology and adaptation. But the most profound link between trilliums and wine is terroir, the importance of local differences in ecology, soil and climate in shaping floral diversification, a huge theme in the edaphic radiation of the genus Trillium across southeastern USA. Our presentations conclude by connecting participants to many of the places (state or county parks, land trust covenants) where trilliums can still be found, in concert with Mt. Cuba’s priorities in promoting local conservation.
Convivial interactions among group members facilitate the realization of several learning goals. First, humans differ remarkably in our chemical senses and experiences. Second, we often overlook fragrances when plants are strongly colored or grow close to the ground. Third, flowers can smell surprisingly different from each other, leading to further questions about physiology and adaptation. But the most profound link between trilliums and wine is terroir, the importance of local differences in ecology, soil and climate in shaping floral diversification, a huge theme in the edaphic radiation of the genus Trillium across southeastern USA. Our presentations conclude by connecting participants to many of the places (state or county parks, land trust covenants) where trilliums can still be found, in concert with Mt. Cuba’s priorities in promoting local conservation.