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
  

Links to Research on Medicinal Plants

Students in today's classes are often from different bckgrounds. Links to medicinal plants show how all cultures have contributed to medicine.

Folklore Medicinal Plants of Mewat, India

South African Medicinal Plants

Anti-diabetes and hypoglycemia plants from Morocco

Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturalists

[under development]

How can you use science to help you make decisions?

In the United States, and elsewhere, many people are often concerned about their weight, how can you use science to evaluate whether you want a macrobiotic diet, a lap-band ventura or anything in-between?
lap-band ventura

Evaluating any decision regarding your health and lifestyle requires sound scientific principles. People are often aware of processes of scientific method(s). Some students, and grown-ups, too, will think of these methods in science class, but forget to use them in every day life. Making sound decisions leads to better health and improved longevity.

Across grades K-12, researchers have focused on ways that students investigate, model, discuss, and understand increasingly sophisticated mathematics and science concepts. Source: http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/ncisla/research/. Accessed December 28, 2007.

Because of global warming, alternative energy, water use and other complicated social and environmental issues, people need to rely on basic science skills like evaluating data.
As a result of the societal and personal needs, decision making is being increasingly included in school curricula, for example, http://earthsys.ag.ohio-state.edu/Decision/aboutdm.htm, Ohio Sea Grant's education project for development of electronic curricula for decision making using Great Lakes data.
But, it takes more than "book-learning" or even internet-learning to make decisions. Higher order thinking skills are essential. Let's look at a sample set of educational standards on this topic:

National Educational Technology Standards (NETS)

# Standard 6: Technology Problem-solving and Decision-making Tools
* Students use technology resources for solving problems and making informed decisions.
* Students employ technology in the development of strategies for solving problems in the real world.
Source: http://www.k12science.org/curriculum/weatherproj/teacher_curriculumstandards.html. Accessed December 28, 2007. The standards, like the ones shown above, often suggest the end result for students. But how do they get there? How do we, adults, get there when we make decisions? Whether picking shampoo, or choosing the best presidential candidate, whether selecting a diet, exercise routine or surgery, we (students and mentors alike) need good decision making skills. We need to think deeply.

I have found that encouraging high school students to use the HOT Skills wheel has helped them to develop the skills necessary to be able to make decisions well. What are HOT Skills?

Let's look at HOT skills related to making a decision on the lap band.

Knowledge

Comprehension

Analysis

Application

Synthesis

Evaluation

1. Knowledge
2. Comprehension
3. Analysis
4. Application
5. Synthesis
6. Evaluation

Source: http://www.youngstown.k12.oh.us/pyett/thinking/index.htm. Accessed December 28, 2007.

Knowledge: Do you know what a lap band is? Journey Lite specializes in Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding which is also known as LAGB or the LAP BAND System procedure. The LAPBAND Adjustable Gastric Band is designed to help you lose excess body weight, improve weight-related health conditions and enhance quality of life. It reduces the stomach capacity and restricts the amount of food that can be consumed at one time.

There's a quote from some of the LAPBAND advertising . It tells some information about the LAPBAND. This information falls in the "knowledge" category of thinking.

Another "knowledge" skill is to "list." Can you list products or lifestyle changes that compete with the LAPBAND? If you used the internet, or pamphlets at your doctor's office or from a medical or nursing text to list products and lifestyle changes that could acheive the same goals of the LAPBAND, you would still be in the knowledge category.

Comprehension: Do you understand the ideas gathered so far? The types of thinking you can do if you understand are:

• interpretation of facts, compare, contrast
• order, group, and infer causes
• predict consequences
• understanding information
• translation of knowledge into new context
• grasping meaning

How would you interpret the facts? Could you make a chart comparing the LAPBAND to competitors products? Could you talk to people who had the procedure and to people that made other life style choices and compare their answers?

Analysis: Do you see patterns? How are parts organized? DO you recognize any hidden meanings? Can you identify components?
Application: You can apply the data when you use information, methods, concepts,and theories in new situations. Solving problems by using required skills or knowledge is also, "application." For example, did you apply math skills that you already have to analyze the data.
Synthesis: Can you generalize from given facts, relate knowledge from several areas, predict, draw conclusions and use old ideas to create new ones? assess value of theories, make choices based on reasoned arguments, verify value of evidence, recognize subjectivity, compare and discriminate between/among ideas.

(c)2007 J S Shipman. Used by Read-about-it.blogspot.com with the author's permission.

A Rose by any Other Name...

A rose by any other name is still a rose...

From Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, 1594:

JULIET:
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.

Source: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/305250.html
Accessed December 28, 2007

...but, a weed by any other name, some may call noxious, invasive, or, still others may call it medicine...

Many so-called weeds are medicinal plants. Still, noxious weeds are a major problem...http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/bmnri/weeds.htm
It becomes an ethical problem to balance the different needs together with the use/abuse of weed-killers. Did you know many "weed-killers" also kill trees?

If you are interested in weed science, you might want to check out the following link:
http://www.wsweedscience.org/

Other resources:

http://www.fws.gov/invasives/volunteersTrainingModule/outreach/players.html

Traditional medicines
Contact information:

Dr Xiaorui Zhang
Traditional Medicine, Essential Drugs and Medicines Policy (EDM)
WHO/Geneva
Fax: +41 22 791 4730
E-mail: trm@who.int

Clayton College of Natural Health

Some books you might enjoy:

• National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers : Eastern Region
• Complete Guide to Medicinal Herbs by Penelope Ody
• The Herbal Handbook : A User's Guide to Medical Herbalism by David Hoffman
• Principles of Medicine in Africa by Eldryd Parry (Editor), Richard Godfrey (Editor), David Mabey (Editor), Geoffrey Gill (Editor)
• Planetary Herbology (Paperback)by Michael Tierra (Author) "Healing herbs are everywhere..."

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/052180616X/ref=s9_asin_title_1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=02XDZTVW11PQW7M0ZZEC&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=320448701&pf_rd_i=507846

,

As Fall comes, start planning next Year's Herb Garden

http://home.howstuffworks.com/how-to-grow-an-herb-garden3.htm