{"id":28920,"date":"2019-03-04T12:35:28","date_gmt":"2019-03-04T17:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/?p=28920"},"modified":"2019-03-05T14:49:23","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T19:49:23","slug":"plant-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/2019\/03\/04\/plant-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Plant Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"PLantLifeMarsh\"
Shannon Kingsley and Dr. Tim Whitfeld document species in the marshes near Tillinghast Place, Barrington, RI. Photo courtesy Jen Bissonnette<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Shannon Kingsley<\/strong> and Nadia Lahlaf<\/strong> first arrived at the Rhode Island School of Design\u2019s Edna Lawrence Nature Lab<\/a><\/strong> in May, their goal was clear: produce a tangible product highlighting how climate change has affected plant life in Rhode Island\u2019s salt marshes since the 1950s.<\/p>\n

Getting there, however, was a road left wide-open by mentors Dr. Timothy Whitfeld<\/strong>, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Brown, and the Nature Lab\u2019s Dr. Jennifer Bissonnette<\/strong> and Lucia Monge<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey told us from the start that it was up to us to find our own direction and decide what kind of concrete thing we would be producing,\u201d explained Lahlaf, a fourth-year student from Billerica, Mass., earning a dual degree in computer science and illustration from Brown and RISD, at the time. \u201cEvery day we had a different thing on the agenda, and our experiences were about finding what was interesting to us and then figuring out how to convey the information about salt marsh ecology that seemed important.\u201d<\/p>\n

On some days, Lahlaf and Kingsley, a sophomore studying English and ethnobotany at Brown, collected plant specimens from salt marshes at Tillinghast Place, a RISD satellite campus located alongside the Providence River.<\/p>\n

\"LahlafKingsley\"
Nadia Lahlaf and Shannon Kingsley show the plant pressing and visuals they produced during the SURF program this summer at RISD’s Edna Lawrence Nature Lab.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During others, they examined plant species at Brown\u2019s Herbarium or took highly detailed images with the Nature Lab\u2019s \u201cmacro-pod,\u201d a camera which snaps nearly 65 images of an item over time and compresses them into one, creating a high resolution, 3D representation.<\/p>\n

After about six weeks, the SURF students had to decide upon a medium to showcase their research: an illustrated book detailing specific plant species and how they had been impacted by climate changes in Narragansett Bay.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an ethnobotany major, I have taken a lot of classes about the history of science and people\u2019s uses of plants for medicine and religious rituals,\u201d said Kingsley, a North Attleboro, Mass., native, about her interest in the SURF project. \u201cWe can learn a lot by combining humanities and sciences.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Bending\"
Kingsley and Lahlaf created a booklet, “Bending,” which visually captures their summer research on salt marsh flora<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Both SURFs were able to explore their educational interests through creating the booklet. While Kingsley took charge of writing compelling, scientifically accurate copy about Rhode Island\u2019s flora, Lahlaf put her creative juices to work by organizing the book\u2019s plant images and developing salt marsh illustrations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have different strengths and backgrounds, and the biggest challenge was finding our own direction,\u201d emphasized Lahlaf. \u201cI really enjoy the problem-solving aspect of computer science, and drawing and painting are things I have done since I was little.\u201d
\n\u201cI love to read and write, it is really as simple as that,\u201d added Kingsley.<\/p>\n

Although Kingsley and Lahlaf are unsure of what they will do after graduation, the SURFs have produced an informative and visually compelling product, the fruit of a successful 10-week partnership. Moreover, their project highlighted the opportunities, and challenges, of working across disciplines to bring diverse perspectives and skills together around a common goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did everything collaboratively, which was an awesome experience,\u201d said Lahlaf as Kingsley nodded in agreement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Shannon Kingsley and Nadia Lahlaf first arrived at the Rhode Island School of Design\u2019s Edna Lawrence Nature Lab in May, their goal was clear: produce a tangible product highlighting how climate change has affected plant life in Rhode Island\u2019s salt marshes since the 1950s. Getting there, however, was a road left wide-open by mentors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1994,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[891],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-curr-non-list"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1994"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28920"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29567,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28920\/revisions\/29567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}