Sustaining a broad diversity of plants is key for a sustainable future. For instance, providing a variety of flowering plants in urban and agricultural landscapes mitigates the current decline of pollinators and biodiversity in general. Therefore, educating about the diversity of flowering plants has high current relevance for biology and…

The term 'Plant Blindness' describes people tending to overlook plants, even though they have an enormous importance for life on earth, especially because of their ability to photosynthesise. Many attempts have been made to counteract plant blindness in biology education. However, so far there is no comprehensive tool to assess the degree of plant…

Especially within the light of the current loss of biodiversity, we want our students to gain a better understanding of the issues at stake in order to take action and support plants and their pollinators. Many educational approaches focus on honeybees, disregarding the vast diversity in the context of pollination systems and the complex…

An important educational goal is enabling students to learn scientific concepts. The scientific concepts learned in class are developed within students' cognitive structures. Despite the successful application of Semantic Network Analysis (SNA) to study these cognitive structures, there has been limited examination of students' concept networks…

In the course of combining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the science education curriculum, the relevance of the micro- and macroalgae in education is based on the biotechnological future-oriented significance and the ever-growing trend toward plant-based nutrition. So, the micro- and macroalgae are finding their way onto the food…

Nearly 14 million species are estimated to exist on Earth, of which 1.8 million have been identified, and new species are being added to the world of science every day. Therefore, scientists are aware that there are still unidentified species living globally. Biodiversity is a wide concept encompassing all living things in our living space. This…

Plant blindness has been widely examined in plant education research. However, practical attempts to counteract the common disregard of plants are rare, especially in standard school contexts. We developed and evaluated a teaching concept based upon an 'Educational Seed Mix' comprising eight annual species from six different plant families. With…

We designed and evaluated a student laboratory workshop on plant-based vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The workshop focused on hands-on laboratory techniques, including DNA extraction from rice seeds, where the recombinant protein was produced, detection of the transgene, and basic concepts on how vaccines work in the human body to offer…

People's diminished awareness of plants, affected by anthropogenic environmental deterioration, has challenged science education to overcome the obstacles impeding a better understanding of their meaning and value. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of the socioeconomic status of high-school students, as indicated by their…

In secondary science education, the learning and teaching of coherent conceptual understanding are often problematic. Context-based education has been proposed as a partial solution to this problem. This study aims to gain insight into the development of conceptual coherence and how context-embedded learning-teaching activities (LT) can promote…

We describe part of an action-research programme in Spain which was based on metacognitive reflection. The participants were four science teachers in a secondary school during the 2004-05 and 2005-06 academic years. During the study, they each analysed their own pupils' alternative ideas on photosynthesis and their teaching methods as recorded in…

After taking seriously the idea that nature should have human rights argued by Cormac Cullinan in Orion Magazine (January/February 2008), we examined the lessons that could be learned from the tree that owns itself in Athens, Georgia. The point is to engage others in environmental and science education in a critical conversation about how school…

Simulations and games are not new artifacts to the study of science in secondary school settings (Hug, Kriajcik and Marx 2005), however teachers remain skeptical as to their value, use and appropriateness (Rice 2006). The difficulty is not only the design and development of effective play environments that produce measurable changes in knowledge…

An activity that can be used to teach plant nutrition and the use of hydroponics is presented. Materials and procedures are discussed. Possible topics for science projects are suggested. (CW)

The construction of a hydroponic system for use in the classroom is described. Provided are construction details, a list of materials with approximate cost, a diagram of the setup, and a sample test. Several activities are suggested. (CW)