You are interested in a botany career...

Plants have great value. They convert solar energy to chemical fuel. They provide shelter, food, oxygen, clothing, shade, beauty...

Plants are so vital to our survival that it is hard to imagine that botanists might have difficulty finding employment. Today a 7-year old girl's family told me she is interested in a botany career. How exciting! A child can see the importance of botanical research and employment while a nation struggles to do so during a recession.

What is botany?

What is Botany?

Botany is the scientific study of plants. "Plants," to most people, means a wide range of living organisms from the smallest bacteria to the largest living things - the giant sequoia trees. By this definition plants include: algae, fungi, lichens, mosses, ferns, conifers and flowering plants. Today scientists believe bacteria, algae and fungi are in their own distinct kingdoms, but most general botany courses, and most Botany Departments at colleges and universities, still teach about these groups.

Source: http://www.botany.org/bsa/careers/what_is_botany.php

What types of careers exist in botany, the study of plants which includes pure research, like studies of photosynthesis or reaction to plant diseases, and, applied sciences, like horticulture and agricultural engineering. To provide youth prepared to study for such careers, you can encourage plants in the curricula at your nearby schools. Did you know most science topics can be taught using plants, including physics, chemistry, general science, and biology. For example, plants have electrical activity and respond to light waves...so, physics is found there. Beneficial chemicals such as anthocyanans and other antioxidants, as well as enzymes are found in plants, so chemistry is found there. In fact, a botanist discovered brownian movement that lead to some of Einstein's work, and another botanist discovered, "chromatography," a technique used and expanded today to include HPLC, a type of chromatography that helps ensure our medicines are as safe as possible. Even medicine started with the study of plants. I am always amazed that the medical curricula took out the study of plants just as herbal medicines are becoming so important. (Perhaps you can help get botany back into the medical school curricula.)

Did you know botanists, plant scientists, from all over the world, cooperate to help prevent famine?

Do you know about plants, botany, and the role botanists have played in advancing the sciences of physics, chemistry and medicine? Are there links to help you learn more botany and get more botany into schools? Surely, there are. Some are listed below to get you started. (As you find others, please add them to the comments. I'd like to add some links from all countries.)

• BSA (Botanical Society of America)
• Plants Cafe (Several nations work together for this link)

• American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, Soil Science Society of America - Careers Placement Center
• American Society for Horticultural Science - Careers & Education
• American Institute of Biological Sciences - Careers in Biology
• American Phytopathological Society - Career Placement Center
• American Society of Plant Biologists - Job Bank
• Careers in Biological Systematics - American Society of Plant Taxonomists
• Ecological Society of America - Career Opportunities
• Mycological Society of America - Jobs
• Society of American Foresters - Career Center
• Society for Economic Botany
• Chronicle of Higher Education - Career Network
• SCIENCE Professional Network: Jobs, Careers and Employment in Science
• USDA Job Opportunities
• AAAS Careers and Grants
  

Time to build immunity in your classroom?

"Immunity and You," Curriculum Available
This curriculum from Cornell will enable you and your students to learn about immunity.

I have posted related vocabulary words here. You can therefore double click on them for meanings and pronunciations. You might also want to use them to create a, "Word Wall," in your classroom. Perhaps each student could design a card and write the definition, too, for the wall.

AIDS Allergy Amino Acid Antibody Antigen Antihistamine Bacteria Disease Fungi Genes Histamine Genetic Recombination Homeostasis Immunity Immune System Insulin Lipid Microbes Organs Pancreas Parasites Pathogen Quarantine Receptor Molecule Recombination Synthesis Template Tissue Trait Tumor Vaccine Virus

Get rest, eat healthily, play healthily, and enjoy life. Build your immunity.

Science Teacher Education and Curriculum Development: Questions for Reflection

Reflection directions: Read through the questions and then write a reflection about what you think. Feel free to post ideas in the comments.

Do you have input for teacher education and curriculum development? You might if you are an employer needing employees with math and science skills. You might if you are a parent of a young child. You might if you are a researcher with knowledge of new scientific developments. You might if you are already teaching science at any level. You might if you are a student.

To have a science that educates us for sustainability, many of your experiences contribute to developing and implementing a leading curriculum for science.

Skilled scientists and/or global citizen, we all need science education. To have it reflect the situations of the world and support diverse needs, science education continually needs to be updated. Higher-order thinking skills, critical thinking skills, are necessary to learn what we need to know to be effective global citizens building sustainability.

Science is not easy for everyone. How can the knowledge we need be transmitted? How can people stay current as times change?There is so much to know and more data available every day. How do we not get overwhelmed? How do we use the new technologies to improve science education? How do we account for diversity of experiences, linguistics, and cultures in curriculum design? How do we expand our curriculum and instruction forum to increase multiculturalism?

How can the programs developed engage the learners? How do we imagine better science education programs? How do we evaluate/assess science learned? How do we help individuals, male and female, old or young or in-between, of any culture or race or mixed races, to recognize their potential to do science...to contribute positively to the global community?

How do we use science education to foster the desire to learn continually? How do we encourage use of science knowledge to improve the world?

Australian Ideas for Science Education

Here is a link to Australia K-6 ideas:
http://science.uniserve.edu.au/school/curric/k_6/ouroz.html

For example, you can take a virtual field trip to Australia.


You might like to compare and contrast Australian environmental weed control methods with Control of invasive species in your own country.

Curriculum Guides Available from Newspapers

Curriculum Guides for Teachers (or, for parents providing enrichment at home) are often available from newspapers.
For example, the Times-Herald Record lists several. Click on the paper name to see what they have. You can also contact your local paper and see if they have anything. You might also want to ask them to have more articles on science topics. (I would like to see articles on preservation of habitat, especially in urban and developing sub-urban and rural areas. Often development proceeds more quickly than thinking about habitat preservation. Sustainability of the Earth requires that we think deeply and implement sustainable, preservation measures. What would you like to see? Let us and your paper know.)

If you are looking for curriculum guides for specific science areas, please email me at shipmanjs@gmail.com and let me know.