Discusses the need to change the Montessori botany nomenclature cards to reflect the progress of the field over the past 55 years. Maintains that the materials used should reflect the goals of botany study for children. Provides a sample outline of lessons and nomenclature for the flowering plants. Discusses the need to use available reference…

Presents an annotated list of Web site educational resources kindergarten through eighth grade. The Web sites this month cover the following subjects: countries (general); electricity; geography; health; children's literature; and plants. Includes a list of "Calendar Connections" to Web site sources of information on Earth Day in April…

Created in 1552 as a gift for Spain's king, the Badianus Manuscript is a repository of Aztec traditional medicinal knowledge and contains the earliest surviving illustrations of New World plants. At the College of Santa Cruz (Mexico City) for Aztec nobility, an Aztec healer who became the college physician compiled plant descriptions and medicinal…

Describes hands-on science areas that focus on trees. A project on leaf pigmentation involves putting crushed leaves in a test tube with solvent acetone to dissolve pigment. In another project, students learn taxonomy by sorting and classifying leaves based on observable characteristics. Includes a language arts connection. (PVD)

Children love observing seeds change as they germinate and grow into tall healthy plants, but how can teachers make investigating plants an exciting and immediate event? Microscopy might just be the answer. Although most students have seen flowers, not many have looked closely at their various structures or seen their colorful designs only…

Spring is an exciting time in any kindergarten classroom. The children are communicating better, and they have begun working more independently. Their critical-thinking skills are growing each day. Last year, as the warm days of spring teased our senses, a plant unit seemed especially enticing, so the author created four interactive, plant-themed…

The authors investigated whether guidance and reflection would facilitate science learning in an interactive multimedia game. College students learned how to design plants to survive in different weather conditions. In Experiment 1, they learned with an agent that either guided them with corrective and explanatory feedback or corrective feedback…

This study is intended to develop an assessment instrument to investigate students' understandings about internal transport in plants and human circulatory system. A refined process of a two-tier diagnostic test was used to develop the instrument. Finally, three versions of the Internal Transport in Plants and the Human Circulatory System test…

Previous research (e.g. "Cognition" 64 (1997) 73) suggests that the privileged level for inductive inference in a folk biological conceptual hierarchy does not correspond to the ''basic'' level (i.e. the level at which concepts are both informative and distinct). To further explore inductive inference within conceptual hierarchies, we examine…

With such curriculum gaps, it is hardly surprising that middle school children's understanding of botany is limited and riddled with misconceptions. Knowing that plants supply the oxygen to sustain most life forms and provide the primary energy source of most food webs is a core idea of science. Investigating non-native species is one way to…

Much attention is currently being paid to rising rates of obesity, especially among youth. In this context, garden-based education can have a role in improving public health. A qualitative study conducted at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) Children's Garden provides supporting evidence for the claim that growing vegetables can improve the…

At home, children often have pets that they take care of and play with; even in the classroom it is not uncommon to find a wormery, an aquarium or an ant farm. However, children rarely have the opportunity to own and care for a plant over a lengthy period of time, let alone a tree. The authors describe a project in Portugal aimed at improving…

College-level biology courses contain many complex processes that are often taught and learned as detailed narratives. These processes can be better understood by perceiving them as dynamic systems that are governed by common fundamental principles. Conservation of matter is such a principle, and thus tracing matter is an essential step in…

The "Kids for Trees" program described in this guidebook is a hands-on natural resource management experience where students raise trees from seedlings to harvest and manage other natural resources in a sustainable manner. Sections of the book include key concepts, getting started, needs of different kinds of trees, learning about potential…

This booklet contains games and activities that can be photocopied for classroom use. Activities include Wetland Terminology, Putting on the Map, Erosional Forces, Water in...Water out, Who Lives Here?, Wetlands in Disguise, Dichotomous Plant Game, Algae Survey, Conducting an Algal Survey, Water Quality Indicators Guide, Farming Wetlands, Wetlands…