IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pbio00/2003318.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mutualism in museums: A model for engaging undergraduates in biodiversity science

Author

Listed:
  • Anna E Hiller
  • Carla Cicero
  • Monica J Albe
  • Theresa L W Barclay
  • Carol L Spencer
  • Michelle S Koo
  • Rauri C K Bowie
  • Eileen A Lacey

Abstract

Museums have an untapped potential to engage students in hands-on learning. Here, we describe the development of a tiered museum-based program at the University of California, Berkeley as a model for engaging undergraduates in biodiversity science. This decade-long effort to increase student participation in collections demonstrates the mutual benefits of undergraduate involvement. Museums benefit from critical help in collections care and an increased intellectual vitality, while students simultaneously gain essential research skills and an unparalleled exposure to biodiversity. Five first steps to creating a program are: dedicate a coordinator, offer credit, diversify participation, create a tiered structure, and build community.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna E Hiller & Carla Cicero & Monica J Albe & Theresa L W Barclay & Carol L Spencer & Michelle S Koo & Rauri C K Bowie & Eileen A Lacey, 2017. "Mutualism in museums: A model for engaging undergraduates in biodiversity science," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-11, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pbio00:2003318
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2003318
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2003318
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2003318&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pbio.2003318?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anna Nowogrodzki, 2016. "Biological specimen troves threatened by funding pause," Nature, Nature, vol. 531(7596), pages 561-561, March.
    2. John Whitfield, 2012. "Superstars of botany: Rare specimens," Nature, Nature, vol. 484(7395), pages 436-438, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sunita Gupta & Parul Kulshreshtha & Divya Aggarwal & Deuvshree Sharma, 2023. "Undergraduate Internship on Yamuna River Exploration: Raising Awareness about SDG6," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-16, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      More about this item

      Statistics

      Access and download statistics

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pbio00:2003318. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosbiology (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/ .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.