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…

Plant blindness refers to the tendency of people to overlook and undervalue plants in their environment, which can have negative consequences for both the environment and human well-being. As pre-service teachers play a key role in shaping the environmental attitudes and knowledge of future generations, it is important to assess their level of…

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…

This paper provides evidence gathered from two suites of non-formal science activities that were intended to increase engagement in science by culturally diverse groups. Both studies involved the delivery of science activities that were designed, implemented and evaluated to show culturally contextualised science. The activities were run in two…

Triterpenic acids (TA), a class of triterpenoids, are widely distributed as secondary metabolites in plants. They have a pentacyclic structure and show high structural diversity. In this work, a simple but efficient method for extraction and detection of TA derivatives from apple peels is described. The method is technically straightforward and…

The COVID-19 pandemic presented significant challenges for both students and educators, particularly because of the virtualization of classes and the consequent lack of practical sessions following the closure of laboratories and experimental fields in universities. The absence of interaction among students and practical classes led to a…

Biodiversity is a multidimensional concept, and its integration into school curricula is essential for promoting sustainable development. Plants are central to the biodiversity of ecosystems; however, student teachers often fail to recognize them and understand their importance. This phenomenon, known as "plant blindness," was first…

Knowledge about plant nutrition and photosynthesis is key to the scientific literacy of citizens. However, numerous studies have shown the existence of about 50 alternative ideas related to this content. In this work, carried out based on a reflection-action process, two studies based on the ideas of our 12-18 year old students are presented, as…

The CRISPR/Cas9 system is widely used for editing genes in various organisms and is a very useful tool due to its versatility, simplicity, and efficiency. To teach its principles to post-graduate students we designed a laboratory activity to obtain and analyze PDS3 mutants in "Arabidopsis thaliana" plants consisting of: 1) Design of…

Humanity has existed in special living conditions since March 11, 2020 when WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. This coronavirus disease has already taken more than 6.55 million of people's lives from almost 625 million of officially confirmed cases of people infected around the world at the beginning of October 2022. Lot of university…

The increasing urbanization and alienation from nature reduce children's opportunities to interact with plants and challenge teachers to devise educational practices that contribute to learning botany. This study presents the results of activities developed in a Brazilian school through explorations, drawings, dried and pressed specimens, and…

This paper highlights the design process and implementation for an "all majors" undergraduate course that allows students a chance to reconnect with the natural world. During this course students explore a wide range of biological and physical science based topics that seek to highlight human intervention and our impacts on the planet.…

This study examines the drawings that 178 young children carried out on two different occasions separated by a period of one year to explain their understanding of the plant world. The pictorial content of the drawings was analysed in accordance to the categories that previous research has proved to be useful when it comes to gaining an insight…

Students enter classrooms equipped with a rich foundation of skills and knowledge from their everyday experiences. High-quality science education builds on students' wealth of experience in making sense of the world. In science classrooms, "sensemaking" is a collaborative practice that includes students sharing initial ideas with peers…

This project aims to develop primary, intermediate, and high school students' sense of place and science-related possible selves through local curriculum units that focus on plants. We chose plants because, compared with animals, they are often overlooked (hence the phenomenon of "plant blindness") in their part in realising many…