Plant Stories

The Science Communication Project Plant Stories was conducted by the research group Ecophysiology led by Stefan Mayr, Department of Botany, University of Innsbruck. The title Plant Stories is deliberately ambiguous as the project aimed at telling fascinating stories about plant life and at planting interest in plant research in the mind of visitors of the Botanical Garden.Plant Stories is based on numerous stations installed in the Botanical Garden of the University of Innsbruck. Three different types were defined: At knowledge stations, basic information of plant life is offered via short videos, and at research stations, interviews with scientists regarding recent research projects can be replayed. At active stations, visitors are animated to actively participate in research. For instance, height and increment growth can be measured and data put into a data base, where values of this and previous visitors are combined to a growth plot. The position of stations was chosen according to plants growing in the Botanical Garden thus enabling a link of living plants and the botanical content of stations.The stations were marked with signboards within the Botanical Garden. Main elements on the signboards are QR-codes, which allow a direct access to the underlying website (aux.uibk.ac.at/plantstories/de/) and embedded videos, audio files and text information. The website can also be used independently and without visiting the Botanical Garden. Contents are available in German, English and Italian. Dialogs spoken in videos were also included as text and combined with cartoon-avatars. Content of videos are not explained by single narrators but presented as dialog between children and/or adults in various combinations. This should avoid the concept of an all-knowing teacher and base the videos on relaxed conversations. The website also includes instructions how to use Plant Stories and a map of the Botanical Garden with the stations.In addition, a folder was prepared explaining the concept, content and location of Plant Stories. In cooperation with Grüne Schule des Botanischen Gartens and School of Education, University of Innsbruck, Plant Stories will also be didactically used and evaluated.