Evitt Nashed

April 10th, 2024

Our Final Lab for Codes 122 was a conducted survey that was sent out to the public and MOBOT researchers to get a more thorough understanding of our wicked problem. My group’s survey was about the lack of knowledge within the MOBOT about indigenous knowledge. We decided to ask a series of questions in our survey about indigenous knowledge in the MOBOT and what we would get as a result to help us resolve this wicked problem. We only got 7 responses to our survey, which was less than we thought but was better than nothing! The people who participated in our survey ranged from research and department leaders to graduate students, scientists, and even librarians.

        One of our questions was, “What does indigenous knowledge mean to you?” A couple of people responded with traditional and environmental knowledge used for their benefit. Another answer we got was Any specialized environmental knowledge from a local group. They also gave us examples like Indigenous folks, organic gardeners, and craftworkers. We also had two responses about Robin Wall Kimmerer’s work and book about correlations of “native” and “Western” taxonomies: even Sacajawea’s role in the Lewis and Clark Voyage of Discovery.

     Another question in our survey was how we can implement indigenous knowledge into the gardens. We got good answers about implementing research they conducted in the Madagascar Program. Another way we can incorporate indigenous knowledge is through exhibits, and also continuing to incorporate this into Western scientific research from the garden. Mostly, all researchers claimed that indigenous knowledge should be implemented everywhere in the MOBOT.

   One of our last questions was about how indigenous knowledge should be showcased. These survey takers thought that museum exhibits and signs in the garden were good examples of showcasing indigenous knowledge. Other examples could be tours or guest speakers talking about the use of indigenous knowledge. A linkage I found within all these answers for this specific question is that all of them preferred signage as a good way to spread the word about indigenous knowledge. Signage is the design or use of signs to get a message to the public.

   This survey overall helped us fill in the gaps and missing pieces of what we wanted to know about indigenous knowledge. Our surveys also helped to raise awareness about indigenous knowledge and why it should be implemented in the Gardens. Indigenous knowledge can give us insights into how these certain people lived and survived with only their natural resources. We can use this information to make MOBOT a less Westernized facility.

    Even though we got good responses to our survey, MOBOT still has qualitative challenges and problems that are hard to fix.  Libraries, databases, and archives can be one example of a challenge the garden faces where the knowledge is broad, but not deep. Another challenge is that it is difficult to get more detailed information from indigenous communities because meaningful and sustained community connections take much time to receive. Many indigenous people do not have the communication resources we have so it takes a good amount of time to get good information.

MC #1

Evitt Nashed

edited oct. 12

The Remington-Doucette book explains thoroughly the concept of what a wicked problem is. They are known as “wicked” because these problems have a harder understanding and could possibly need different factors to help it. Wicked problems have 6 different factors that can affect a problem. The six characteristics of a wicked problem include.

1. vague problem definition
2. undefined solution
3. no endpoint
4. irreversible
5. unique
6. urgent

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Characteristics-of-wicked-problems-adapted-from-Rittel-Webber-1973_fig10_332669251

The Botanical Gardens suffers with multiple wicked problems. They go through many undefined and irreversible solutions for plants. The Botanical Gardens go through vague problems that needs attention before things can get worse. The idea of a wicked problem is that there’s no endpoint. The Gardens suffers with many problems that seem to not end.

Evitt took this picture.

Certain people, referred to as botanists, work there to try and figure out if they can grow more of the plants that they have that are endangered. The endangered species the garden has are very unique that we need more of it and that means we need to do a lot of research about the plants. That is an urgent and vague problem the garden suffers with.

https://www.dreamstime.com/photo-two-male-botanist-examining-herbs-plant-nursery-image156725027

While looking through the MOBOT website, I learned that a group of people go to Madagascar to do science research for the garden. it quotes, “The program that has been built in Madagascar is highly respected and we need to leverage the prestigious position the Garden holds there to continue to push for the growth of science and conservation in a country with one of the most threatened floras in the world.”  reading this made me realize that the gardens will always have problems that can’t be solved but instead resolved, which means the garden’s problems don’t have an endpoint. An endpoint is an example of a wicked problem.

Us students as a research team needs to do something. We need to protect the garden and its history behind it all. There might not be a complete defined solution, but helping instead of just sitting around will have a better impact. We need to restore the life the garden has brought to us. We should work closely with communities to help us research more about the garden.

A characteristic of a wicked problem can be vague meaning that it can lead to multiple other problems and doesn’t have a definite solution. Even though a problem could be vague, doesn’t mean we can’t find the problems causing it. Us as people need to take different approaches to helping our environment.

Another characteristic of a wicked problem is being irreversible. For example, when you do something, you can’t really time travel into the past and fix it. You just have to learn from it and revise. Some things we do in nature can harm the environment and its quite irreversible to fix when everyone is not caring about our world. Some things we can do to help is documenting and learning about the climate change we have in the world. This can help identify what type of environment is needed for plants to thrive. We should also connect with nutritional needs for the plants. We need to know what type of nutrition it needs to also thrive and not die off. That helps with our endangered species in knowing what can help us produce more of it. Restoring forests that have been dying can help produce more of what we need. Nature is what makes us humans. Without it we wouldn’t be living. All our social norms would be changed upon it. The animals we count on, count on the food nature produces. Without it then the animals will die off and so will we as humans. That is why we all need to take a step and help out our environment.

Wicked problems can also be referred to as unique meaning it can hold special value. The DNA of the plants that are paper pressed in the herbarium holds such a unique feature. Those DNA samples of plants gives us an idea of the families those specimens are related too. DNA can also give us an insight of what living condition it needs to grow in. DNA samples can also help scientist figure out the Latin translation name of the plants.

    Wicked problems can be defined as urgent. Urgent meaning that without anyone helping, it will just get worse from there. People need to take action immediately to help our environment.

Disease prevention is a big urgent problem the garden has. Diseases are very easy to catch for plants and once we eat them, then we get a disease. Although this problem cannot be fixed forever, however, it can resolve how we can block these diseases off. Research can help us in many ways. We should research ways to block off diseases in plants and what type of nutrition and environment changed are needed to help in that case. A disease that is common in the garden, is a fungus called Ganoderma lucidum. This disease attaches to either younger or older trees and kills them off immediately. Us as a research team should look up ways to prevent this from happening. This fungus attacks the lower heartwood and causes the tree to be weak and flimsy. This disease can be common around trees that are Maplewood, oaks, or honey locusts. Although it can be found in other trees, but those are those most common ones. Trees affected by fungus can change the color of the tree to a more yellowish color. The leaves are also to be weak and flimsy with weird coloration. To identify this fungus, we look at either the trunk or root of the tree and see if they have this mushroom-like fungus growing out of it. To resolve this problem, we need to focus on the nutrition it gets, the climate its growing in and how to avoid damaging the tree.

references

Search Results (missouribotanicalgarden.org)

Ganoderma Root Rots (missouribotanicalgarden.org)

About – Discover + Share (discoverandshare.org)

Important, Urgent and Knowing the Difference