Sunday, April 11, 2010

Lichens in the Community

Haven't you always wanted to go to a festival and find an exhibit all about lichens?!  This weekend I was lucky enough to have an opportunity to participate in the 10th Annual WOODSmont Children's Festival sponsored by Duke University's Wilderness Outdoor Opportunities for Durham Students ('WOODS').  I set up a table with a full exhibit including 'touch and feel' lichens, a microscope (so that children could see the lichens up close), a collage of amazing photos of lichens from around the world (thanks to Robert Lücking for compiling these), and 'pet lichens' for children to take home. Here is a photo of the exhibit itself:

This picture shows an action shot of some local children becoming aware of the lichens in their neighborhood:

It was a great day, and I look forward to more opportunities for this type of outreach!

-Brendan

[Many thanks to the National Science Foundation for funding my research and associated outreach through a recent Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: DEB-1011504.]

2 comments:

  1. Awesome! And nice weather, too! My blog is at ; it is not as dedicated to lichenology/mycologi/science as yours, though. Regards, Louise.

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  2. Hi Louise, Thanks for checking in; it's great to find out about your blog! How funny that you chose 'Biodiversity and Evolution' for your blog header, and I listed the same under my specialties in the 'about me' section! It's nice to see what you are up to on the English posts of your blog (sorry I can't read the rest!). Congratulations on your recent Lichenologist paper!
    Best wishes, Brendan

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