New Year's Resolution: Don't neglect Plants!

There is “a recognized tendency, even for knowledgeable biologists, to overlook, underemphasize or neglect plants when teaching introductory biology courses.”³⁵ Too often, biology is “botany taught by a zoologist,” leaving students with “the popular delusion that biology is the study of animals.”²⁹ This results in widespread ignorance about and underappreciation of plants.^{3,4,10,14,33,36
Source: http://www.actionbioscience.org/education/hershey2.html. Accessed January 1, 2010}

Plants provide excellent examples and experimental subjects for all the life science standards (NSES p. 106) Source: http://www.actionbioscience.org/education/hershey2.html. Accessed January 1, 2010

Plant blindness can be costly. What values do plants bring to us? That is a good question to ask ourselves and our students. Try to make your own list, then, check out the following and other pages on the web. Visit your local botanic garden for more ideas. Don't forget the virtual Plants Cafe (here or top left of this blog for the link).

• ^{http://www.mlswa.org/underwaterplantguide/value_of_plants.htm (Values of underwater plants...good photos)
  http://www.suite101.com/blog/gypsyprincess/the_value_of_plants_in_the_medicinal_world (plants for medicines)}
  
  
• ^{http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/2001/suppl-1/69-75fabricant/fabricant-full.html}
• ^{http://www.oak-forest.org/pubworks/ValueofPlantsandLandscaping.asp (landscaping---aesthetic value---water conservation value)}
  
  
• ^{http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?Article on value of plants in arid environments...Reclaiming or preventing deserts anyone?} Wadi Allaqi Biosphere Reserve, Egypt⁾

• ^{http://www.utextension.utk.edu/publications/spfiles/SP614.pdf ($ value---plant appraisal)}

• ^{http://www.vprgs.msu.edu/node/986 (nutritional value)}

^{Other links related to what science is taught---the science learning standards...}

• ^{http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309053269}
• ^{http://www.big6.com/2004/07/27/state-learning-standards-the-big6%E2%84%A2who-needs-%E2%80%98em-using-newsbank%E2%80%99s-big6-tools-to-support-standards-based-instruction-a-case-study-from-texas/}
• ^{http://www.ssnsc.org/education/education%20standards.htm}

• ^{http://www.sciencebuff.org/collections/research-collections/botany/botany-science/ (has many other education links)}
  
  
• ^{http://www.aspb.org/education/foundation/principles.cfm}
  
  
• ^{http://www.siu.edu/~ebl (economic botany ideas)}
  
  
• ^{http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien (on invasive species)}
  
  
• ^{http://www.science.siu.edu/parasitic-plants (Dan Nickrent's information on parasitic plants)}
  
  
• ^{https://www.georgiastandards.org/standards/Georgia%20Performance%20Standards/Botany.pdf (standards fromthe state of Georgia, USA, as an example)}
  
  
• ^{http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/education/eduBOYP.shtml (life science unit for K-4, lower primary grades, roughly ages 5-9)}
  
  
• ^{http://www.nbii.gov/portal/community/Communities/Plants,_Animals_&_Other_Organisms/Botany/ (What is botany? What are its subsets?)}
  
  
• ^{http://www.nbii.gov/images/uploaded/8496_1254759519509_Botany-factsheet_9-09.pdf}
  
  
• ^{https://www.msu.edu/~cppt/Faculty/Nair/index.html (cherries as an example)}
  

Please feel free to add links from your own countries either by e-mailing them (shipmanjs@gmail.com) or by adding them to the comments below the post.

Happy, healthy, blessed, and, prosperous New Year.