Abstract Detail

BSA-Wide

Hartley, Jennifer [1], Adams, Catrina [1].

PlantingScience: Promoting Students' Science Identity through Online Mentoring.

Most American children today grow up indoors, due to cultural fears for their safety and society’s willingness to embrace digital hobbies and entertainment.  As a result, many grow up with very little exposure to plants, even despite plant-specific content taught in K-12 schools.  At the same time, students rarely have opportunities to observe or interact with real plant scientists, making it difficult for many to understand how their lives are impacted by the research in plant-science fields.  As a result, students struggle to see plants as important and tend to regard plant scientists as remote and unrelatable. With this in mind, PlantingScience was developed to create a means by which students and plant scientists can connect with each other.  Combining an online portal with inquiry-based, student-led plant science explorations that can be incorporated into a teacher’s existing curriculum, PlantingScience makes it possible for students to consult with a real scientist while they explore topics like photosynthesis, seed germination, phytopathology, and agronomy in the classroom.  During 2016 and 2017, students’ understanding of these topics as well as their thoughts and feelings about plant scientists were evaluated through pre- and post-surveys and compared with those of students whose classes studied the same content without making use of PlantingScience.  Participating students showed a significant gain in both their understanding of the science content and their attitudes about science and scientists.

Related Links:
PlantingScience platform

1 - Botanical Society Of America, Education, 4344 Shaw Blvd, Saint Louis, MO, 63110, United States

Keywords:
K12
Education
mentoring.

Presentation Type: Discussion Session
Number: D1001
Abstract ID:1038
Candidate for Awards:None