Recently, Hubei Science and Technology Association issued the Notice on Naming "Hubei Science Popularization Education Base (2022-2026)". SCMZU’s Natural Science and Technology Resource Pool of Wild Plants in Wuling Mountain Area was designated as one of the bases, among a total of 70 units in the province. Previously, the Ethnology Museum and Materials Museum of SCMZU were designated as popular science education bases in Hubei province.
Based on the "Measures for Identification and Management of Popular Science Education Base in Hubei Province", recommended by relevant provincial societies, colleges and universities (research institutes, enterprises), provincial association for science and technology, county-, municipal- and prefecture-level associations for science and technology, and relevant provincial units, and confirmed after preliminary evaluation and expert evaluation, the list of popular science education bases was determined, which aims to give full play to the functions of these bases in science popularization, comprehensively enhance their ability to popularize science, improve people’s scientific literacy, and build Hubei Province into a more powerful province in science and technology.
The scientific research of wild plant and natural science and technology resources Wuling Mountain area conducted by SCMZU has been fruitful. While conducting scientific research, the resource base takes "student-oriented development, ecological education, all-round development, learning with strong points, and sharing with the society" as its tenet, and persists in carrying out science popularization of plant classification and dissemination of ecological culture to help the public better understand ecology, environment, animals and plants, and create an educational atmosphere that encourages science learning, practice, and innovation.
The base consists of a plant herbarium, an ethnic medicine herbarium, and a science popularization base for the College of Life Sciences. The plant herbarium consists of a specimen room, a DNA bank, a seed bank, a native GPS germplasm resource bank and an information center. The information system of the base and the two plant herbariums are open to primary and secondary school students, research institutes, colleges and universities and other teaching units, biotechnology products developers, and germplasm resources and biotechnology research personnel free of charge throughout the year. The base offers science popularization lectures, courses and exhibitions, and resource library visiting activities for primary and middle school students of Hubei Province, and has served more than 800 people/time. Members of the resource library have won the first prize of National Excellent Popular Science Micro Video in 2019, the award of major demonstration activity in the 2020 National Science and Technology Activity Week, the second prize of Hubei Science Popularization Contest in 2021 and the second prize of Wuhan Science Popularization Contest in 2021.
Editor: Liu Qiong； Source: Institute of Scientific Research and Development
