Scan, Link, Learn: Campus Arboretum as Living Lab

The Purdue Arboretum is a campus landscape arboretum that began as an idea in late 2008 to recreate the Purdue campus as a living laboratory. The mission of the Purdue Arboretum is to collect and display ornamental woody landscape plants from around the world in a way that enhances the educational, research, and outreach mission of Purdue University, promotes environmental sustainability, and increases the beauty of the Purdue campus. The Purdue Arboretum (2,552 acres) is an outdoor laboratory that preserves valuable woody plant materials and increases the number of plants in established campus collections for student learning, fosters development of public education programs, supports research, demonstrates sustainable land stewardship, and provides areas for passive recreation. In August 2013, the Purdue Arboretum made available its new Scan, Link, and Learn educational initiative (www.arboretum.purdue.edu). This initiative involves an extensive, interactive mobile-learning platform, database, and the geo-location of all woody plants and landscape features, collectively called the Purdue Arboretum Explorer (http://mlp.arboretum.purdue.edu) and based off of the BG-Base and BG-Map database and mapping programs. Another important aspect of Scan, Link, and Learn is the labeling of one or more representatives of each of the 779 unique ornamental woody plant taxa on campus.  Users can scan QR codes on a plant or landscape feature label, link to that plant or feature’s page on the website, and learn by using the wide expanse of information available on the website and database for all aspects of the arboretum. The Purdue Arboretum Explorer mobile-learning platform and interactive database allows for protection and efficient management of the campus urban forest and woody plant collection, while also providing a resource used by academic departments, students, campus visitors, and researchers around the world.  This platform features several key components: plants, sustainability initiatives, and landscape features (including art and geological features), all of which are included on the campus map.  A self-guided sustainability tour has been developed which highlights landscape based sustainability applications. The Purdue Arboretum and the Purdue Arboretum Explorer application together embed ecological learning into the campus landscape and fulfill Purdue’s goal of campus as a living laboratory. Content can be tuned to various audience levels from K-12 students up to graduate researchers, and fully integrates state-of-the-art tecnology and interfaces. This initiative fully realizes the mission of a land grant institution: education, research, and engagement.