SCIENCE EDUCATION PlantingScience Has Large Session, Successful Student/Scientist Mentoring Conversations Despite Pandemic Disruptions Despite facing disruptions and a dynamic range of teaching situations, from fully inperson learning to hybrid, to fully remote learning, we had a larger-than-usual spring PlantingScience session. Nearly 1000 students from 26 classrooms participated this fall, working closely with scientist mentors and our Master Plant Science Team liaisons. Some student teams worked remotely from each other, and commented to their scientists about challenges and lessons learned when collaborating remotely. “Next time we could try to check comments and responses of our group members more often. Most of us used centimeters, but one or two group members used inch[e]s.”
Throughout the session, students and scientists shared a general feeling of optimism and “light at the end of the tunnel” regarding the COVID-19 pandemic disruptions, and there was a lot of appreciation for the motivation boost of interacting with scientist mentors virtually, as well as the opportunity to do science projects again for those participating virtually. Explore the PlantingScience Star Project Gallery at https://plantingscience.org/ psprojects/starprojectgallery to see examples of the work of PlantingScience student teams this spring and the conversations they had with their scientist mentors over the course of their project.
By Dr. Catrina Adams, Dr. Jodi Creasap Gee, Education Director Education Technology Manager 112
