It's All in a Long Day's Work

Andrea Wolfe--A Passion for Making Science Accessible

Andrea Wolfe, associate professor of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, recently had the chance to do what she loves most-field work. But first she had to get her house in order.

The past year was a heavy dose of lab work, getting papers ready to present at meetings, travel, and service: to her professional society, the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, which charged her with organizing 300 papers from the annual meeting's proceedings; and to the College and University, serving on the Search Committee for the Dean of the College of Biological Sciences.

Factor in a heavier teaching load than usual, and Wolfe was more than ready to head for the hills, "Mostly I got into what I do because I love field work."

Wolfe is strongly committed to reaching out to the community, particularly young people in their most formative years. In 1999, when she was in Africa, she sent back photos with accounts of her travels in the field to the fourth-graders at her son's school; along the way, she was able to paint a picture of the South African cultural climate and its biodiversity and whet their appetite for information. Soon, they were sending her questions about the insects, animals, geography, plants and culture.

"I had limited access to the Internet, but I would spend several hours at the computer-it was a big effort-but worth it! This interaction with the kids was very rewarding."

"Most people have a deep fear of science--if we can weave a story so that it is not intimidating, we can overcome the fear of big words, give some sense of scale, bring something humanizing into the talk--we can educate the public in a way that goes beyond the classroom."

Wolfe is no stranger to outreach-she has given botany talks to the Boy Scouts and given nature talks at Day Camps.

"Most people have a deep fear of science-if we can weave a story so that it is not intimidating, we can overcome the fear of big words, give some sense of scale, bring something humanizing into the talk-we can educate the public in a way that goes way beyond the classroom."

Wolfe also maintains the Penstemon web site. "There are all kinds of opportunities for outreach, extensions of what we enjoy about science-it fills a need much broader than classroom learning.

"My greatest joy is time in the field-finding new habitats. I want students to understand the place organisms live in and how they adapt. By observing patterns, we see the big picture.

"I am an organismal biologist who uses molecular tools, but none of it makes sense if you haven't seen the environment."