Sowing the Seeds of Dialogue: Public Engagement through Plant Science

With enhanced public accessibility of scientific information, increased demand for a scientifically literate workforce and citizenry, stipulations from funding agencies to broaden the impact of science research, and changing rewards systems at universities, scientists are looking for ways to engage the public in their work. This commentary is designed to share our philosophy of engaging the public through partnership with the K-12 community and the strategies we learned along the way. We intersperse examples from efforts across the country and describe the story behind our own program as concrete examples of these strategies in action. Over the past several decades, rapid advances in the life sciences, spurred by the emerging fields of genomics and information technology, have filtered into almost every arena of consumer goods and services, from food production to healthcare. As molecules, cells, and organisms become easier to manipulate and produce, individuals increasingly need to make choices about whether and how they use these products of life science. Equally important is the training of a future workforce. As of 2004, there were more than 40,000 bioscience organizations in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, employing 1.2 million people making an annual average wage of $65,775, which is $26,000 more than the average annual wage in the private sector (Biotechnology Industry Organization, http://bio.org/speeches/pubs/er/statistics.asp, accessed on 5/23/07). The demands of our changing economy and workplace require a workforce with a deeper understanding of biotechnology and scientific research.