Focuses on the botanical publications of two 18th-century English women writers, Elizabeth Blackwell and Priscilla Bell Wakefield. Analyzes their books. Indicates that they contribute new perspectives and techniques to the historical tradition of botanical writing and illustrating and exhibit modern techniques for effective technical…

Identifies a plant species found in California that is probably related to a now extinct continental ancestor of a species found on the Hawaiian Islands. Discussed are the implications about how plants worldwide came to be where they are. (KR)

Discusses botanical literature used in a biology course for nonmajors. (JRH)

Describes how seeds contain the information of both the past and future of the world's plants. (CCM)

Presents five suggestions for using sunflowers to teach elementary students. The ideas include: setting up an exploration table and keeping journals about the plant; taking sunflower measurements and making predictions; reading "Camille and the Sunflowers"; creating sunflower still-lifes; and doing sunflower seed math. A list of…

Makes the case that, contrary to popular belief, Mendel's famous paper about plant breeding announced no major findings. Reports on the paper's rediscovery as a result of a priority dispute between de Vries and Correns. (Author/MM)

Food, medicine, clothing--much of what people encounter every day comes from plants or plant products. However, plants often do not get as much attention in the K-12 curriculum as they deserve. Because of the essential role plants play in peoples lives, it is important to include standards-based plant units in the elementary science curriculum.…

Merging science and writing to enhance both subjects was the objective of a venture known as "Plant Notes." At first, teacher-written notes served as the inspiration for this writing assignment. Later, eclectic student-written novellas, poems, song lyrics, mnemonic devices, and field trip recollections made their way into "Plant Notes" and stole…

It is well documented that people are less interested in studying plants than animals. We tested whether university students would selectively recall more animal images than plant images even when equally-nameable plant and animal images were presented for equal lengths of time. Animal and plant images were pre-tested and 14 animal-plant pairs…

The "Under the Mistletoe" project was developed to capitalize on student curiosity about the American Christmas Mistletoe plant and draw learners into an engaging, inquiry-based exercise that incorporates numerous life science standards and collaborative research. By collecting data on host and nonhost tree size, location, and number of mistletoe…

In the project presented in this article, high school students create and observe miniecosystems in an ecology unit designed around a 5E (engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and evaluation) instructional model. Students choose a wide variety of organisms and use creativity to design miniecosystems. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

Even though photosynthesis is an obligatory part of the science curriculum, research has shown that students often have a poor understanding of it. The authors advocate that classroom coverage of the topic of photosynthesis should include not only its biochemical properties but also the role of photosynthesis or photosynthetic organisms in matter…

Presented is an activity that may be used to help students clarify the basics of graphing while allowing individuals to collect data and perform a simple experiment. A timetable, rules for graphing, materials, procedures, and suggestions for extension activities are provided. (CW)

This paper describes an easy experiment to study the absorption and action spectrum of photosynthesis, as well as the inhibition by heat, high light intensity and the presence of the herbicide 3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea (DCMU) on the photosynthetic process. The method involves measuring the chlorophyll fluorescence emitted by intact…

This study aims at highlighting the collaborative activity of two high school students (age 14) in the cases of modeling the complex biological process of plant growth with two different tools: the "paper & pencil" concept mapping technique and the computer-supported educational environment "ModelsCreator". Students' shared activity in both cases…