VISITING THE PROFESSOR - INNOVATIVE RESEARCH IN THE BOTANIC GARDEN WITH A TURKISH GUEST SCIENTIST

With the start of the (pre-)Christmas season, we welcome Sena Seçil Akpinarli from Hacettepe University (Ankara, Turkey) to the Biology Education team. During her six-month research stay (funded by the 2214-A programme of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye), we will jointly develop and evaluate innovative teaching methods for teacher training in the digitally supported teaching of species identification in the Botanical Garden of the TU Dresden.

As part of her Ph.D., Sena Seçil is working on digital mobile applications to guide and support the professional learning of pre-service teachers in outdoor environments (Akpınarlı & Köseoğlu, 2024). In particular, the concepts of 'plant blindness' and 'plant awareness' are central to her research, as is the use of digital technologies. This makes her a perfect fit for us, and there are many links to the 'PlantPlay' line of research in our research group.

Today's first meeting and tour at the Botanical Garden marks the beginning of an exciting time for Sena Seçil, and we are already inviting anyone interested to become part of this research project. Calls for participation will follow in March/April! Please send any questions, suggestions or further ideas for collaboration to: