How life all around us has shaped our story

OurBio is a place-based educational media project that aims to deepen the connection between the people of a region and the features of its natural history that has shaped their story.  The name OurBio reflects the intersection of the biology of a region and the biography of its people.

OurBio has been launched in Acadiana, an area of Southwest Louisiana settled by Native Americans, Francophone Cajuns and many others. Migration and settlement in our prairie, wetland and coastal ecosystems have produced a place rich with local knowledge about about the plants, animals, landscapes and people that produced a cultural gumbo like no other.

Via original, participatory content adapted for diverse media platforms and audiences, OurBio hopes to serve as a resource for life-long learning. It is hoped that OurBio will be useful as a sustainable model by which the oral natural history of any place can be harvested and communicated to diverse audiences of all ages.

OurBio is a project of Dr. Phyllis Baudoin Griffard, a university biology educator who has taught all over the world and retired from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2020. Her curriculum vitae is here.