11:00 AM - 11:15 AM
[G03-08] Effects and problems of outreach programs in university campus festivals: The case of "Mushroom exhibition" in the campus festival of Chiba Institute of Science
Keywords:outreach, mushroom, fungi, exhibition
Outreach programs in scientific studies include lecture, symposium, fieldwork, workshop, collaboration between high school and university, cooperative activities with local government, citizens, and NPO etc. These outreach programs play an important role in promotion of extension of research activities. Fulfillment of outreach programs is important because social contribution of scientific research is needed. Fungal phylogeny, taxonomy and biogeography are main research fields in Kasuya laboratory of Department of Environmental Risk and Crisis Management, Faculty of Risk and Crisis Management in Chiba Institute of Science. Our laboratory devotes various educational activities to spread of basic knowledge on fungi including importance of them to ecosystem and human society. Our laboratory has planned mycological foray for children and high school students, supports for amateur mycologists, and lectures for civilian. In 2014 and 2015, we conducted “Mushroom exhibition” in the campus festival of Chiba Institute of Science as one of these outreach activities. Exhibition of specimens of various wild and cultivated mushrooms and pictures of mushrooms in natural habitat has been conducted in “Mushroom exhibition”. Moreover, workshops of microscopic observation of fungi and making “origami” of mushrooms have also been conducted during the exhibition. Staffs and students of our laboratory have explained contents of the exhibition to visitors. In this presentation, effects and problems of outreach programs in university campus festivals are discussed with the case of these "Mushroom exhibition".