When the pandemic shut down the in-person educational opportunities at both Penn State Brandywine and Tyler Arboretum in March 2020, the Sustainovation Team leaders stepped in to keep the connections going between both communities. With the assistance of undergraduate student researcher Dallas Barber, Sustainovation Team co-leaders Laura Guertin and Karen Theveny rolled out a program for April through July that provided an online option for learning about nature.

Penn State Brandywine coordinated with Tyler Arboretum to form a virtual podcast discussion club, called Listen To This! Every two weeks, a new nature-themed topic was selected with a list of pre-selected podcasts for individuals to explore. Topics included World Bee Day, Water, World Biomes, National Forest Week, and more. After listening to the 5-7 podcasts, everyone logged in to Zoom for a one-hour discussion of the content. The discussions were enriched by the participation of Penn State students, alumni, and research scientists from the Academy of Natural Sciences (Philadelphia) and 500 Women Scientists Philly Pod. The final discussion addressed how participants could make a difference for nature with education and advocacy.

See this Penn State News article from April 15, 2020, titled Brandywine, Tyler Arboretum offer online discussion group during pandemic.

To view the playlists and questions we discussed, visit: https://tinyurl.com/onlinepodcastclub

The Sustainovation events at Tyler Arboretum’s Multilingual Storytime in February 2020 supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #4 – Quality Education, and Goal #17 – Partnerships For The Goals.