The following correspondence offers a clear look at the important issues driving ASPB’s efforts to support quality plant science education outreach. Please note: Minor edits have been made to improve readability.

Colleagues:

I share these communications from John Fischer, an insightful physics and chemistry teacher from Ashwaubenon High School in Wisconsin. John spent quite some time observing what was taking place in the ASPB booth at the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Annual Convention, March 25–29, Boston. As ASPB moves forward in our continuing commitment to promote a deeper public understanding of the centrality and importance of plants and science to the welfare and future of all, I think we would agree that teachers such as John Fischer are the sort we must incorporate into our mix and support in every way possible.

Paul Williams
phwillia@wisc.edu

The following e-mail exchange took place between John Fischer and Paul Williams:

Dear Paul,

I enjoyed watching you try to battle upstream against the system concerning inquiry in science. I’ve heard you are the “god” of inquiry. Now I understand. After watching teacher after teacher answering your question with things like, “Well, I’d have to look it up in a book,” it truly struck me how bad we’ve become as teachers.

As I told you at the ASPB booth, most activities with living things have been ridden out of our biology curriculum. My peers simply tell me “you don’t understand biology” when I make suggestions to them. I am beginning to think perhaps I am the only one who does understand biology. You don’t need a degree. You need interest.

Recently, our department at Ashwaubenon High School has had to analyze our budget for ways to cut costs. During that process, I suggested we try to culture the Daphnia we use rather than keep ordering it fresh every time we need it. It didn’t seem to be too difficult a task. However, nobody had ever cultured anything (nor did they want to learn), so I volunteered. After some failures trying to follow suggested formulas, I experimented and found a means of culturing them that really is quite easy. How did I do it? By trying.

Last year we cultured over a dozen species at school, and we continue to add to the list. Who is leading the charge? The chemistry/physics guy whose last biology course was in 1973; however, the one thing working for me is that I know I don’t know too much about what I am doing, so I am learning on the job. The biology folks just admit that they don’t know….

As I look at all of the clever things you have done, from Fast Plants to bottle biology and beyond, the vision of what inquiry is has become crystal clear. Don’t answer a question that someone can easily figure out by trying. Does light affect how a fast plant grows? Figure it out, only figure it out scientifically. Does the plant grow or bend toward the light? Is it attracted to blue light or green light? Where does it get its nitrogen? Those were all questions that could be answered by experiment rather than by looking them up in a book.

As I once again take on the bio folks with regard to plants in the curriculum, I will take your approach. I am going to set up a half-dozen Fast Plant activities to present at our science staff meeting. I will ask the questions, ask for proof of their answers, and hopefully open up their eyes a bit as to how we can invigorate our program. By showing them how simply we can offer students a multitude of learning opportunities, at low cost and expense (the shot glasses blew me away—I’ve paid $6 to $10 for comparable containers . . . ), I hope to initiate some lasting changes. Not only can every kid grow their own garden; every kid can design what they want to find and do, and better yet, they can even do it at home, maybe even cleverly involving their parents or siblings. . . . You’ve opened my eyes. Thanks a bunch!!

JF

Hello, John:

How kind it was of you to share with me your thoughts after observing the little semicircle of teachers [photo above] on the carpet around me in the American Society of Plant Biologists’ booth at the recent NSTA annual meeting in Boston. It was particularly nice to meet you, if only briefly to say “hello,” and most gratifying to learn that you, together with others at that meeting, recognize that there are critically important alternatives to the way we are approaching how to teach biology. What you had to say, I think, has great relevance to how the teaching of biology should be viewed, in that yours is the perspective from a teacher of physics and chemistry. Yes, biology is chemistry, physics, and math all equipping the curious mind.

To aid you in your improvement efforts, check out “Paul’s Sandbox” on the Fast Plants website at www.fastplants.org, and look for lots of inexpensive tools for inquiry that kids and teachers can play with as they learn. Also, check out the new Fast Plants Network on the same site. It was established during the NSTA meeting, and perhaps you and your colleagues will want to join it.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me. I would like your permission to pass along your insights to some key people in the educational network. Your message must be shared.

I hope that your meeting with your teacher colleagues is productive, and please keep in touch.

PW

Hi, Paul,

Please feel free to share anything and any thoughts I share. I have already shared your thought about how many vendors at NSTA were actually showing live things. Interestingly enough, I was at a physics sharing session last night in Steven’s Point, a gathering of about 25 to 30 physics teachers from the middle of Wisconsin who get together four times a year to share ideas. One of the topics that came up was from a couple of technical college teachers who were complaining about using simulators for learning electricity. They felt that though the simulator adequately conveyed a lot of the content of hooking up real circuits, when the students were asked to work with real circuits, they showed a severe lack of ability to proceed. The common thought was that simulators had a place in education, but they couldn’t replace working with the real wiring. To me, that is analogous to talking about genetics and crosses on paper without actually growing the plants and seeing living results, or growing plants on a computer instead of in a pot. You can get part of the point, but if you try to use that knowledge without practicing with the real thing, you have this huge empty void of what growing is all about and can form many misconceptions when you actually get around to planting (like the students who put 50 fertilizer pellets in the pot to make it grow better).

JF

Comments regarding this exchange can be sent to katie@aspb.org.