Project title: Under the Fig Leaf: Revealing University Research through Community
Interpreters
Project description: This project engages the public in university research on tropical
biodiversity through a living rainforest exhibit at the Bell Museum of Natural History.
The exhibit features more than 30 different species of fig plants, interpretive displays,
and a video produced by local high school students at the Community Learning Project.
Outcomes and stories that showcase your initiative: The motivation for this project
was to spark the interest of young visitors to the Bell Museum in biodiversity research. In
the course of developing the exhibit panels, Bell Curator of Exhibits, Don Luce, met a
high school student particularly interested in tropical plants named Otto Gockman.
Otto’s involvement in caring for plants in the exhibit over the past year is a good example
of how we are reaching our audience.
Bell Curator of Education, Kevin Williams, has also involved local high school students
in the production of a video to accompany the exhibit. The students elected to focus on
the personal story on Dr. George Weiblen, whose research is featured in the exhibit. The
video chronicles how a student of the Minneapolis Public Schools became an
international expert on tropical fig trees and a professor at the University of Minnesota.
Contact person (name, e-mail, phone, website):
George Weiblen
gweiblen@umn.edu
Office: 612/624-3461
Lab: 612/625-8749
Web: http://geo.cbs.umn.edu