Assemble for a party (and learn about biodiversity while you’re at it)

Just as with any party, you’re invited to drop by or stay for the entire Biodiversity Learning Party at Assemble in Garfield on April 10, 4:30-7:30 p.m.

Unlike most parties, however, you’ll likely come away with less gossip but more brain cells, and it’s an evening for all ages.

Like a science fair

“It’s almost like a science fair,” says Assemble founder Nina Marie Barbuto, “where we have different experts presenting their expertise and offering hands-on activities.”

These experts include everyone from college students talking about their academic concentrations to representatives of local companies and “straight-up geeks whose expertise has nothing to do with their jobs,” Barbuto says. The biodiversity party will feature presenters from the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, Tree Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh biology department. Also manning and womanning tables at the event will be reps from Digital Dream Labs, which teaches computer programming to children by using play to link physical and digital spaces, and Tara Rockaway and Heather Mallak, whose Digital Salad mixes art, tech, and education about farming to create educational experiences that are both interactive and edible.

Learning parties

Learning party themes this year have been mapping and music/sound, and future ones will be centered on robots and energy.

“It’s our goal to provide access to knowledge” — and to make it “attainable and digestible,” Barbuto says. “It should be real fun, and we always have free healthy snacks.”

Biodiversity as part of your vocabulary

Her hopes for the party, she says, “start with just having the word ‘biodiversity’ as part of your vocabulary and seeing how this affects the world around you.” Ideally, she adds, the younger attendees will emerge thinking, “I’m interested in nutrition but I never knew this had to do with biodiversity,” or “Maybe I can be a scientist.”

Writer: Marty Levine

Source: Nina Marie Barbuto, Assemble