Pollen Power

Since the inception of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, its slogan has been “where science meets society.” This highlights the institute’s deep commitment both past and present to communicate the research and discoveries happening at the IGB with the public, and promote scientific thinking to encourage a new diverse generation of scientists and science-informed citizens. “We established a comprehensive outreach program within a few years of opening the IGB, for several reasons,” said IGB Director Gene Robinson (GNDP).

Activities that revolve around science provide children with the opportunity to develop different skills, including communication, problem solving, perseverance, and learning to work in teams. The Pollen Power camp, started in 2013, targets students from underrepresented populations in STEM and teaches them to observe the world around them with a scientific mindset.

Scientific pursuits often require examining a problem from different angles in order to gain a complete understanding. Such an undertaking often requires multiple researchers, each with a unique skill set. But what happens when certain voices are ignored over and over, in favor of others? It breeds inequality that weakens our science and our sense of community.

The Pollen Power camp, which takes place over the summer, targets 6th-8th grade students from underrepresented populations in STEM with the goal of training them to observe their surroundings like scientists. Usually, it takes place in-person at the Carl. R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology where the campers study pollen to see how they germinate, use them as a time capsule to study the climate that existed millions of years ago, and use the facilities to image pollen.

Do you like a classic summer camp, one that offers new friendships, field trips, treasure hunts, and sweet treats? Or are you looking for the best that a science camp has to offer: laboratory visits, high-resolution microscopes, exotic live insects, and 3D printing?

Most summer day camps rely on some standard activities to entertain their attendees—indoor and outdoor games, crafts, field trips, and snacks. The middle school girls who attended Pollen Power camp at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) in mid-July enjoyed all these activities, but with some unique touches: plants and insects, fiber optics and lenses, microscopes and green screen recordings all played a big role in the camp’s agenda.

A week long day camp designed for talented girls who are interested in the biological sciences.

For the last week of June, thirteen middle school girls from as near as Champaign and as far as Putnam County descended on the IGB to learn about plant response to global climate change in both the distant past and coming century. The girls, participants in the IGB’s Pollen Power! summer camp, visited labs, met with experts, and engaged in hands-on activities with female mentors and role models in order to envision themselves as future scientists.

Last week’s cloudy skies and frequent rain contributed to an unusually wet central Illinois summer, but could not dampen the enthusiasm for science displayed by 24 middle school girls who converged on the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) to learn about plants, pollination and technology.

For many people, the word “pollen” evokes only the idea of a springtime allergenic nuisance.  For one group of middle school girls, though, pollen is now a symbol of summertime fun and learning.  Twenty-six girls from around East Central Illinois came to participate in Pollen Power!, a week-long science day camp hosted July 7-11 by the Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus.