Biodiversity Month - Report 133

The World in your backyard: biodiversity day at the peabody

Event type: Biodiversity Fair
Number of participants: 7 Scientists, 670 Public

Event Report:
This was a day-long celebration of biodiversity with a focus on botany, mainly because we coupled the indoor museum event with an outdoor plant sale. The plants for sale were all species/varieties that are known to attract wildlife, and there was a companion talk in the museum about landscaping for wildlife, using native species (picture). Inside the museum we set up tables for various organizations and displays, including the Northeast Organic Farmers Assoc. (display on seeds and agricultural diversity), a beekeeper, a master gardener's table, a display of local invasive plant species (cuttings) (picture), a worm composting set-up, and the butterflies and moths that one might expect to find visiting ten of the plant species for sale outside the museum (picture). We also had a tropical fruit tasting station (picture), seed planting for kids, and two other more formal presentations ("Caterpillars to Know" and "Fresh Local Greens"). Finally, the Peabody Fellows Program, a program that works within the Peabody Museum to give local middle school teachers a firm understanding of biodiversity and ways to create curricula around the topic, displayed their mobile "bioaction lab" and let visitors touch and experience the items and displays that are usually only available to a select group of classrooms each year (picture).

Pictures provided by David Heiser: