Like to breathe?

Did you know plants help you breathe? How do they do that? The process of photosynthesis helps cycle oxygen through the environment so that we can use it to breathe. You may have heard about that process before. But to understand this process, perhaps you can design a few experiments and with the help of a parent or other mentor, you can figure out what happens in photosynthesis. Plants do many more things than that, but often, people barely see them. For example, people describe a picture of a bee or an elephant, but, in each case, they do not describe the plants. Similarly, people talk about dinosaurs but ignore the plants they had eaten. Not all people, of course, but many.

Today scientist-educators from all over the world, joined the many Canadian and American plant societies at Botany 2008 to discuss the direction of botany in science education. They discussed botanical education, past, present and future, focusing on the direction education will take. Government recommendations and educational standards were also discussed in light of current educational practices in the sciences.

If you are interested in teacher training at your school, or at a scientific meeting, where you can add botanical inquiries, and concurrently teach the required standards, to your teaching repertoire, please send an e-mail to shipmanjs@gmail.com and put Botany 08 in the reference line.

One can use inquiry to find out so many things about plants. Be sure to let us know what experiments you are planning, J