Fascination of Plant Day 2022
 

MPIPZ took part in this years’ international ‘Fascination of Plant Day’ on 18 May with a virtual visit to a Biology Highers Course at the Albert Schweitzer Gymnasium Hürth.

The Fascination of Plant Day aims to inspire and fascinate people around the world about plant. Under the umbrella of the European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO), this day wants to illustrate the importance of plant research for agriculture and sustainable food production.

Within the theme ‘talk to a scientist’, PhD Student Carolina Cintora virtually visited the secondary school class and talked about her project and what it is like to be a plant scientist in general.

In a very engaging way Carolina explained the pupils how she is trying to find out how different leaf shapes evolve at molecular level and if the ‘use’ of these specific shapes is beneficial to the plants.

Carolina showed the pupils where she gets her samples for her research from, which different techniques she uses and how these work.  Explaining the importance of her research for Evolution, Plant Breeding and Biotechnology was also part of her visit.

With a focus of the school in languages the school pupils had no problem in following the presentation and engaging with Carolina in English, which is a great benefit to our international scientists at MPIPZ.

Various students expressed their interest at the after-event feedback session to visit MPIPZ to get a greater insight into plant research.

Carolina truly fascinated and motivated the pupils to learn more about plant science.

A great event we are looking forward to repeating in the near future to learn about pupils’ thoughts and ideas and to inspire a new generation of scientists.