Describes the changes in the roles of the Cooperative Extension Service and extension specialists affiliated with universities. Reports the results of survey research and concludes that extension specialists should actively pursue the opportunity to direct graduate students. Contains 16 references. (DDR)

Five experiments tested the development of conceptual categories by familiarizing infants to objects in a category and presenting them with an object in a different category. Infants' responses indicated that infants at 7 to 11 months categorized animals, vehicles, and furniture; at 11 months, plants and kitchen utensils; and at 9 to 11 months,…

Presents an activity in which students use microscopes and digital images to examine Elodea, a fresh water plant, before and after the process of plasmolysis, identify plant cellular structures before and after plasmolysis, and calculate the size of the plant's vacuole. (ASK)

Developed an instrument to measure invasive plant environmentalism (knowledge and attitudes concerning non-native plant invasions). Scaled responses of 237 plant nursery customers to a 17-item standardized interview using the partial credit model. Results indicate that the instrument measured the construct of invasive plant environmentalism…

Discusses how botanical artists blend science and aesthetics. (CCM)

Just imagine the excitement in the classroom when Johnny Appleseed strides in. Barefoot and dressed in a burlap sack, he-well, actually, it's you dressed up as Johnny-wears a tin pan for a hat and smiles as he relates the reason for his visit. Fall is apple season, and he's here to explain how all the beautiful fall apples were produced. The story…

Amber is the fossilized resin of now-extinct trees, primarily ancient conifers but also some flowering tropical trees. An aromatic, soft, sticky substance, resin in extinct trees probably served the same purposes as resin in modern trees: to protect the plant by sealing cuts and by excluding bacteria, fungi, and insects.

Teaching plant growth to seventh-grade life science students has been interesting for the author because she grew up in a rural area and always had to help in the garden. She made many assumptions about what her rural and suburban students knew. One year she decided to have them grow plants to observe the roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruit…

Exotic, captivating, and seductive, orchids have long fascinated plant lovers. They first attracted the attention of Westerners in the 17th century, when explorers brought back samples from South America and Asia. By the mid-1800s, orchid collecting had reached a fever pitch, not unlike that of the Dutch tulip craze of the 1630s, with rich (and…

Photography makes an easy and excellent tool for teaching field biology courses, allowing students to study nature without harming it. This photographic technique is used in capturing images of vertebrates, invertebrates, and plants during class field trips, then making these images available for students to identify and study from a departmental…

Teachers often struggle to excite students about geology, with most young people in today's technology-driven society being unfamiliar with rocks and minerals. Discussions centered on medical geology, the science that studies the link between normal environmental factors and geographical distribution of health problems, may help bridge the gap.…

Alkaloids are part of the chemical arsenal designed to protect plants against an adverse environment. Therefore, their synthesis and accumulation are frequently induced in response to certain environmental conditions and are mediated by chemical signals, which are formed as the first responses to the external stimulus. A set of experiments using…

"Community," "assemblage," "network," "complex," "interdependent," "web," and "synergism"--definitions of an ecosystem often include these words to highlight the dynamic interrelated workings of plants and animals with their physical environment. Young children don't understand the complexities of ecosystems, but they can begin to understand that…

On first contact, students express less interest in plants than in animals. With suitable didactic methods, however, the teacher can actively interest students in plants. In our research we attempted to quantify the influence of these methods. 184 students of three age groups took part in the experiment. We used eight plants (one artificial). We…

A laboratory exercise is presented in which students determine where metabolic heat is primarily generated in blooming eastern skunk cabbage ("Symplocarpus foetidus") plants. Students consider how color, shape, and orientation of spathes, and stage of flower maturation, may affect metabolic heat production and retention of both metabolic and solar…