ISF Springfest Booth Engages Hundreds of Visitors

Springfest is fun for friends, family, alumni and potential students, with visitors and participants regaling in the celebration of so many things that makes Purdue, well, Purdue. Every year departments and colleges put on their best show with exciting engagement activities such as insect cuisine, sheep shearing and even painting frisbees. While ISF has participated in the event for several years, it has always been a perplexing challenge--as a research institute, how can we make our work 'come alive' in ways that will engage hundreds of children and visitors who move quickly from booth to booth looking for things to collect and activities that can be done in 5 minutes or less?

This year, ISF had help from the creative endeavors of three individuals--on the faculty side, the work of Dr. Ximena Bernal (BIO) and her son, Tomas, complemented the Pokémon-inspired promotional creativity of senior operations manager Karan Hustedt-Warren. As explained in this article from the fall 2023 semester, in spring 2023, Dr. Bernal worked with the John Martinson Honors College  to teach a new course, "PokéBio: Exploring Biology through Pocket Monsters". As students advanced through the course, they learned ecology, evolution and conservation biology by transforming endangered species from the Midwest into imaginative and playful pocket monsters.  In addition to leading to an exciting campus-wide game in August 2023, the course led to the creation of about one dozen monster 'artifacts' that the Bernal lab carefully displayed in clear individualized cases that ISF then displayed as part of the ISF booth at Springfest 2024.  The display was complemented by large cards describing the monsters and video links that connected to descriptions of the endangered species were also provided.

In addition to the educational display, Hustedt-Warren spent time this semester creating trading cards featuring 8 endangered species (animals and plants) from the state of Indiana. Children could collect the cards at the ISF booth as well as other booths including those for the College of Ag, Forestry and Natural Resources, as well as others located throughout the festival. With 800 cards to give away, they went fast, though the PokéBio pocket monsters, and accompanying stickers, delighted hundreds of children throughout the day. In fact, the cards created such a 'buzz' that dozens of children continued to ask about them throughout the afternoon. Both senior admin Kelli Dawson and senior managing director Lynne Dahmen discussed the story behind the displays and talked about the Institute throughout the day. Many children and students brought along parents, including the first family of Purdue, who all learned about biodiversity, endangered species, the Honors College, and perhaps a bit about the great work of faculty researchers associated with ISF.