Maintain and monitor the Valley Life Science Building pollinator garden
Cynthia Looy, Professor
Integrative Biology
Applications for Fall 2025 are closed for this project.
Pollinators are essential components of a healthy ecosystem and provide vital benefits to both plants and animals. The student-run pollinator garden on the south side of the Valley Life Science Building (VLSB) supports native insects, spiders, and other wildlife and is an environmental education resource for students. Our goal is to engage students outside the classroom by maintaining a constant, high-visibility demonstration landscape around VLSB. We expect this landscape to be utilized by several courses and workshops on the UC Berkeley campus related to conservation, natural history, landscape design, entomology, ornithology, botany, and ethnobotany. So our URAP-heavy team has planned, implemented, and monitored the installation of native plants that attract insects and other wildlife.
Role: This semester, we are looking to develop a central research focus with a team of individuals with interest and experience in observing pollinators. Please see below for detailed role responsibilities. This project is led by undergraduate students Ian Chan, Ysabela Philip, Ryan Kao and Dr. Cindy Looy, in collaboration with Nina Solokov and Signe White.
Projects:
1. Garden maintenance & Education (all students):
- Weeding, planting, and mulching
- Training in plant and pollinator identification
2. Pollinator surveillance & research development (3-5 positions):
- Identify pollinators using nets & catch and release methods
- Assess diversity and abundance of pollinators
- Determine pollinators host plants to inform plant choices
3. Public outreach (2-3 positions):
- Seeking experience with website development and social media management
- Work with a current member to further develop a website to act as a landing page for public outreach including project description, history, and progress
- Build a social media presence and continuously update the page to increase awareness about our mission
- Experience with applying for grants is an added bonus
4. Landscape design & maintenance (2-3 positions):
- Familiarity with landscape design terminology & software tools
- Interest and knowledge of native plants is desired
- Collaboration with existing team to continue garden design, development, and maintenance
We are looking for 6-8 URAP students to help with pollinator surveillance, data analysis, publicity development, and garden design These tasks will be split or shared among the URAP students and require 5 hours per week out of their schedule. Please indicate which task(s) you are most interested in. Once a week, all students will meet in the garden for a group meeting and garden maintenance. There will also be opportunities to develop research questions and conduct statistical analysis.
Garden Maintenance (2-3 hours per week) and 2-3 hours per week of either: (5 hours total)
Pollinator Surveillance & research development
Public Outreach
Landscape design
Qualifications: Interest in gardening and natural history observations, excitement for being outside, desire to grow native plants and increase pollinator diversity around the Valley Life Sciences building. No previous research experience is required.
Weekly Hours: 5 hrs
Related website: http://www.looylab.org/
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Ian Chan, Ysabela Philip, and Ryan Kao (undergraduate students).
Hours: 3-5 hrs
Related website: http://www.looylab.org
Environmental Issues Biological & Health Sciences