Outreach

Institutions involved in this TCN use volunteer-driven public programs to contribute to the digitization effort of the African plants project.

The Field Museum (FM) hosted community scientists to participate in digitization projects at the Field Museum Collections Club. Fourteen community scientists attended an event in December 2022, learned about this project and its main objectives, and barcoded ~1800 specimens of flowering plants from Africa; in January 2023, 32 community scientists barcoded a further 5271 specimens.

Other volunteer-driven programs hosted by FM include:

April 2023, the WeDigBio Event, wherein community scientists were invited to participate in digitization projects at the Field Museum.
Bank of America Community Volunteering Program, where 18 people attended and barcoded 2976 African plant specimens.
FM Members' Night events provided FM members with the opportunity to visit behind-the-scenes areas to meet scientists and learn about their research projects, including a display about this project in the Imaging Lab.

Volunteers at California Botanic Garden from Mt. San Antonio Community College barcoding specimens (Photo credit: Mare Nazaire).

At California Botanic Garden, ecology students from Mt. San Antonio Community College helped barcode specimens for the African plants data project to waive their tour fee.