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Posts Tagged ‘teaching & learning’

College Students’ Knowledge of Plants

Posted in botanical art, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 19, 2012 |

We have seen how experiences in informal botany education can improve the plant recognition skills in children. Today we take a look at how plants fare in the minds of college students.

In Botanical Knowledge of a Group of College Students in South Carolina USA, Gail E. Wagner evaluates student knowledge of crop plants, trees, flowers, weeds, vines and grasses.

Wagner’s sample population consisted of thirty-one 18-22 year-old college students. Sixteen interviewers helped Wagner conduct this study. Each interviewed two students. The students who were interviewed were selected by the interviewers themselves. Both the interviewers and the interviewees were undergraduate students at the University of South Carolina. The interviewers were enrolled in an ethnobotany course.

During this study, students were asked to create a list of plants for each of the categories mentioned earlier. Wagner (2008) marked entries as being “correct”, “wrong”, or “inappropriate”. Incorrect entries were plants listed in the wrong categories or were listed using general terms. Entries marked “inappropriate” were entries that were placed in the correct category, but did not meet other criteria outlined by the interviewers (such as plants growing outside of South Carolina) (Wagner, 2008).

Student responses were entered into a software program used for consensus analysis (see Wagner’s paper for details). Data analysis revealed:

  • Students were more familiar with crops, trees and garden flowers than vines, weeds and grasses.
  • 77% of students could identify local crops correctly
  • 50% of students could list at least one wildflower or weed correctly (“dandelion” was listed most often)
  • 35% of students could not list a grass. One of the students surveyed remarked, “I didn’t know there were different kinds of grasses” (Wagner, 2008)
  • 19% of students could not list a vine
  • 4% of students could not list a wildflower or weed

Wagner (2008) found that students could provide the most detailed plant lists for categories with which they were most familiar. She explains she is not surprised by students’ ability to correctly identify more crops, trees and wildflowers given the well-established fact that children in industrialized countries interact with plants less frequently, are exposed to many non-native plant species through urbanized landscaping, and “that most local flora is viewed from the window of a vehicle” (Wagner, 2008).

Gail E. Wagner’s paper is much more than an analysis of botanical knowledge. It provides interesting insights into sources of knowledge and how people categorize information. Wagner (2008) provides an interesting discussion about “direct”, “indirect” and “vicarious” knowledge. Citing research about how children experience nature, she explains that indirect knowledge comes from direct interaction with plants, that indirect knowledge comes from guided interactions (such as what can be found at botanical gardens), and that vicarious knowledge is the kind of knowledge one might acquire while surfing the Web or watching television.

To learn more about these topics and Wagner’s thoughts about designing studies to evaluate botanical knowledge, download a copy of her article by clicking on the link below. The article is free to download. The journal Ethnobotany Research and Applications is published online. Its contents are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.


Literature Cited

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Drawings Reveal How Teachers View the Environment

Posted in Education, Learning Opportunities, nature, Sketching & Journaling, tagged , , on September 21, 2012 |

Instead of exploring drawing and learning as it applies to young learners, today we’re looking at drawing, learning and teachers.

How teachers view the environment influences how they make meaning about it. To investigate how teachers view the world around them, Christine Moseley, Blanche Desjean-Perrotta and Julianna Utley field-tested a scoring rubric assessing teachers’ perceptions of the environment as revealed through their drawings. Their findings are discussed in The Draw-An-Environment Test Rubric (DAET-R), Exploring Pre-Service Teachers’ Mental Models of the Environment.

Drawings have been used as a research tool for many years because they provide insight into an individual’s beliefs and how they make meaning about the world around them (Moseley et al., 2010). Because there has been little research into teachers’ mental images of the environment and how these images influence how teachers think about the environment, Moseley et al. (2010) made this the focus of their research.

To make it easier to quantitatively assess teachers’ mental images as revealed through their drawings, Moseley et al. (2010) created a rubric that enabled them to assign a score to specific elements (or “factors”) in a drawing. The rubric they designed was used to evaluate pre-service teachers’ replies to two prompts in the Draw-An-Environment Test (DAET). Teachers were instructed to draw a picture of what they thought the environment was and then were asked to provide a written definition for the environment. The two prompts pre-service teachers responded to were “My drawing of the environment is ___” and “My definition of the environment is ___”.

Moseley et al. (2010) designed this study to address two research questions:

  1. Is the Draw-An-Environment Test Rubric a valid assessment tool?
  2. What mental models (i.e., images) do early childhood pre-service teachers have of the environment?

The quick answer to their first research question is, “yes”. The rubric they created is a valid and reliable assessment tool. A thorough statistical analysis of the DAET-R can be found in their paper.

As for their findings regarding their second research question…

One hundred eighteen pre-K to fourth grade pre-service teachers (average age 26.9 years) participated in this study. The participants were enrolled in senior level science and math courses.

The drawing portion of the DAET was evaluated using the DAET-R. The evaluation focused on “the degree of evidence in the drawings of interactions” (Moseley et al., 2010). Scores were assigned if a factor was present, if a factor was not present, if a factor interacted with other factors and if two or more factors interacted with each other (Moseley et al., 2010). The research team assigned “degrees of evidence” using a scoring system of 0-3 points, with the highest point score assigned to drawings in which “the participant was trying to indicate an interaction among factors with an emphasis on a systems approach to the definition of environment” (Moseley et al., 2010).

The drawings they received revealed that the pre-service teachers do not consider humans to be an integral part of the environment. Sixty percent of the participants completing the DAET did not draw humans in their pictures and only 31% drew humans interacting with the environment in some way (Moseley et al., 2010). The drawings also revealed the pre-service teachers’ lack of understanding about interactions occurring between factors in the environment (Moseley et al., 2010). Participants included many factors in their drawings and while they labeled them with identification labels such as “cat” or “tree”, they did not assign conceptual labels like “pollination” or “growth” (Moseley et al., 2010). Only two of the 118 drawings scored represented an understanding of how systems are dependent upon each other in the natural environment (Moseley et al., 2010).

The research team observed several drawings of homes, bedrooms, schools, classrooms and urban neighborhoods — scenes suggesting to Moseley et al., 2010 that the word environment did not bring forth images of nature in the minds of their participants. Citing the work of several other studies, Moseley et al. (2010) concluded that their sample population of pre-service teachers had an “object view” of the environment instead of a view in which humans interacted with the environment.

Before I continue, I need to point out that, prior to participants completing the DAET, Moseley et al. (2010) asked participants about their “residential experiences” (i.e., where they have lived for most of their lives). They found out that 21% of their sample population had lived in a rural environment, 32% in an urban environment, and 46% in a suburban environment. It should also be pointed out that prior to their participation in this study, the pre-service teachers had not received any training in environmental education (Moseley et al., 2010).

The results of the drawing section of the DAET are consistent with the results observed in the written section of the test, an evaluation that Moseley et al. (2010) described in a separate paper. The research team evaluated the drawing and written portions of the DAET separately so that the DAET-R could be evaluated for its validity as an assessment tool.

The results of their study prompted Moseley et al. (2010) to call for teacher education programs “that support pre-service teachers’ development of a conceptual model of the environment that integrates humans and the abiotic and biotic factors within the environment” as this would better prepare teachers to teach children about organisms, the environment, and biodiversity.

Read more about the research team’s recommendations and see how they used the DAET-R to evaluate drawings. Purchase a copy of this paper online or
search for this article at your local college library. A copy of the DAET and the DAET-R are included in this paper.


Literature Cited
Moseley, Christine, Blanche Desjean-Perrotta and Julianna Utley. 2010. The Draw-An-Environment Test Rubric (DAET-R): exploring pre-service teachers’ mental models of the environment. Environmental Education Research.
16(2): 189-208.


Also See

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Scientific Illustration in Kindergarten

Posted in botanical art, botanical illustration, Education, general botany, Learning Opportunities, tagged , , , on September 7, 2012 |

Conversations about natural science illustration usually occur among adults interested in a broad range of topics pertaining to the fields of art and science.

However, younger audiences can also be found to engage in similar conversation. Take for example, the students of Kathryn Kaatz. A kindergarten teacher in Minnesota, Kaatz begins each school year with an activity that trains students to become observant science artists. Kaatz describes this activity in A Walk in the Tall, Tall Grass.

Early in the school year, Kaatz (2008) reads In the Tall, Tall Grass by Denise Fleming to introduce students to the plants and animals living in meadows and grasslands. This introduction is followed by a field trip to a reclaimed prairie. The objective of this field trip is to do more than look for the plants and animals students learned about in the book. The objective is to prepare students to become thoughtful observers and scientific illustrators.

During their field trip, students look at the types of grasses growing in the prairie, inspect seed heads, and identify grass species by using the photographic field guide Kaatz (2008) created for parent volunteers. While in the field, Kaatz (2008) makes it a point not spend too much time telling students what to observe and how to observe. She says she is more interested in letting students make their own discoveries.

Back in the classroom, however, Kaatz (2008) carefully guides students when they sit down to observe grass plants in more detail. Her thoughtful and methodical approach to enhancing student observation skills begins with a reading of What is a scientist? by Barbara Lehn and by emphasizing something of great importance that all scientists do — draw what they see. Aspiring to make students more thoughtful observers and recorders of information, Kaatz (2008) takes the time to discuss with students the differences between scientific drawing and artistic drawing. She then sits down with a vase of grass specimens and models how to observe and how to draw the grass specimens she brought into the classroom. In her article, Kaatz (2008) shares how she talks to herself during her demonstration. Kaatz (2008) says she says things like:

Hmmm….I can see the stem goes all the way to the bottom of the vase, so I guess I’ll make a line like this.

Oops, (the lines) aren’t so straight but I guess that’s O.K. When I look at the grass, I see things in nature aren’t perfect either.

Upon concluding her demonstration, Kaatz (2008) presents her scientific drawing to her students. She then instructs students to draw at least three different grass specimens and reminds students that scientists only draw what they see.

Having taught this activity for several years, Kaatz (2008) says she is always pleased with how seriously students observe the grass specimens and how thoughtfully they compose their scientific drawings. By showing students how to observe and how to create scientific drawings early in the year, Kaatz’s students are prepared to “draw as scientists” (Kaatz, 2008) all year long.

Learn more about how Kathyrn Kaatz teaches this activity in her classroom by buying a copy of her article online for 99¢ at the NSTA Learning Center.


Literature Cited

    Kaatz, Kathryn. 2008. A Walk in the Tall, Tall Grass. Science and Children. 45(6): 28-31.

Also See
Making Connection and Inspiring Action to Preserve America’s Prairies

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Mapping the Trees of Central Park

Posted in Education, Learning Opportunities, tagged , , , , on August 24, 2012 |

Today I want to follow-up last week’s article about art and botany needing each other, with an example of how the disciplines of art and botany can work together to change the way people experience a local park.

When artist and art director, Ken Chaya, was asked to make a map about the trees and landscapes of Central Park, little did he know he was about to become a botanist, an experienced hiker, and become intimately familiar with every square foot of New York’s famous park.

Over a two-year period, Chaya learned how to identify trees, created symbols for every major tree species, walked more than 500 miles, and represented 19,630 trees on a single sheet of paper to create the most accurate and detailed map ever published about Central Park.

Chaya tells his story at CentralParkNature and provides a behind-the-scenes look at how he created Central Park Entire, The Definitive Illustrated Map.

In six short documentary-style videos, Chaya explains how he learned to identify 172 species of trees, how he mapped every path in the park, and what he learned while creating the illustrations for his map.

Here is a great example of art and botany in action!

Chaya’s map is available as a wall poster ($35) and as a folded map ($12.95). Quantity discounts are available.


Related

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Do Art & Botany Need Each Other?

Posted in botanical art, botanical illustration, general botany, Learning Opportunities, Special Announcements, Special Events, tagged , , , on August 17, 2012 | 1 Comment »

Drawing is not about making pictures, but it is about learning to see through drawing.

– Ila Crawford

In Art Instruction in Botany Lab, Lyn Baldwin and Ila Crawford investigated how drawing changed the way botany students learned in a traditional botany lab. This year, they are investigating the reverse — how students in a traditional art class will react to the study of botany.

In a recent article, Does the Science of Botany Need Art? Does Art Need the Science of Botany?, Baldwin and Crawford write about how the disciplines of art and botany can benefit from each other. To make their points, Baldwin (a quantitative field botanist) explains why “the science of botany needs the joy of art” and Crawford (a visual art instructor with 20 years experience) explains the reasons why plants have a “legitimate place in art education.” Their article is a must-read if you’re interested in how drawing can be used to encourage an interest in plants.

Written as a backdrop for their current research about incorporating botany into art class, it also serves as an announcement for an exciting new exhibition for which Baldwin and Crawford are the curators. The exhibition they have created explores the idea that “art inhabits the teaching and practice of botany, and conversely botanical subjects and scientific methods have a legitimate place in teaching and practicing art.”

Lyn Baldwin and Ila Crawford have announced the call for entries for this exhibition and they would like to invite you to participate. The wonderful thing about this exhbition is that it is open to not only artists, but to botanists as well!

Here is a summary:

Art and Science: Drawing and Botany
Canadian Botanical Association
June 5-25, 2013

Invited: Artists, botanists, and groups of artists and botanists working on special projects (10 or more individuals)

Submissions: Three maximum for individuals; one per member for group submissions. Only original work will be accepted, no reproductions. Sketchbooks will be accepted. Only digital images will be accepted for the jurying process.

Entry Fee: $10 per registration ($10 covers up to three works)

Deadlines: Individual submissions (March 29, 2013), Project-based submissions (January 15, 2013)

For additional information about digital submissions, artist’s statements, insurance and more, visit Art and Science: Drawing and Botany.


Literature Cited

Baldwin, Lyn and Ila Crawford. 2012. Does the science of botany need art? Does art need the science of botany? Canadian Botanical Association / L’Association Botanique du Canada. CBA/ABC Bulletin. 45(1): 10-13. Web. http://www.tru.ca/cba-abc/art.html [accessed 16 August 2012]

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Using Writing to Encourage Drawing

Posted in Education, Learning Opportunities, Sketching & Journaling, tagged , , , , , on August 3, 2012 |

Concerned students have very little exposure to the outside world, middle school science teacher Janita Cormell and professor Toni Ivey created a curriculum that uses writing as a tool to reaquaint students with nature. In Nature Journaling: Enhancing Students’ Connections to the Environment Through Writing, you’ll discover that writing can be used as more than a tool for reflective thinking. Cormell and Ivey (2012) show that writing encourages people to share their thoughts, to engage in analytical conversation, to see the world around them, and to describe what they see through drawing.

To reverse the disconnect between youth and nature the authors feel is coming at the hands of technology and the fact that too much outdoor science is taught indoors, Cormell and Ivey (2012) created a research project that called upon students to discuss, illustrate, and write about issues affecting the environment and the relationship humans have with it.

The authors began their project by teaching students how to create their own journals. They then arranged for students to spend 30 minutes each week in the outdoor classroom at Cormell’s school. While outdoors, students participated in several learning activities. Some activities encouraged reflective thinking. Others were designed to enhance students’ listening, reading, writing, and speaking skills.

Cormell & Ivey (2012) observed that nature journaling increased the “depth of (student) understanding of the environment” and helped Cormell’s students “make better connections between science activities, writing and the environment”. In their article, they discuss eight journaling exercises, the rubric they used to assess student understanding of the environment before and after their study, and provide a list of resources for teachers.

Interpretive naturalists may find the activity Cormell & Ivey (2012) used to enhance students’ observation skills of particular interest. Students became so engaged with this activity, they took on the role of interpretive guide all on their own.

Cormell & Ivey’s article is available online for 99¢ from the National Science Teachers Association. Alternatively, you can look for their article at your local college library.


Literature Cited

    Cormell, Janita and Toni Ivey. 2012. Nature journaling: Enhancing students’ connections to the environment through writing.
    Science Scope. 35(5): 38-43

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How to Integrate Art Across the Curriculum

Posted in botanical illustration, Education, Learning Opportunities, natural science illustration, tagged , , , , on July 20, 2012 | 1 Comment »

There was much interest in last week’s article about the art strategies that can be used to enhance science communication, so I thought we’d take a few moments looking at the strategies that were used by Buczynski et al. (2012). The strategies they used came from Julia Marshall’s paper, Five Ways to Integrate: Using Strategies from Contemporary Art.

In her article, Marshall (2010) cites studies explaining how integrating art with other disciplines is worthwhile. She also provides teachers with specific ideas on how to integrate art into all subject areas.

The strategies defined by Marshall (2010) have one thing in common — they are strategies artists use “to manipulate ideas and imagery to make meaning” (Marshall 2010). Through the manipulation of ideas, artists re-frame information in direct or creative ways. Here is a quick look at these strategies and how they enhance learning.

    Depiction:
    A straightforward approach that involves drawing or creating from observation. Scientific illustration and botanical illustration fall into this category. According to Marshall (2010), this strategy is appropriate to use with all ages (preschool to adult) and aids in learning because it requires a learner to observe a subject, reproduce a subject and reflect upon the subject’s construction.


    Extension/Projection    :
    This strategy calls upon artists to make predictions — to reflect on how a situation will change or to reflect on what might be possible. The implementation of this strategy aids learning because it requires learners of all ages to study an idea before they can think about how it could change (Marshall, 2010).


    Reformatting    :
    This strategy requires learners to see things in a new context. Doing so is beneficial to learning because seeing a subject or a concept in a different way results in a new understanding of the subject or concept (Marshall, 2010). This strategy can be used in middle school and high school classrooms (Marshall, 2010).


    Mimicry    :
    Mimicking the methods of others is simply doing what others do. Mimicking is beneficial because it provides an opportunity for experiential learning; this strategy can be implemented in grades K-12 (Marshall, 2010).


    Metaphor    :
    The creation of metaphors requires identifying differences between similar entities. Creating metaphors aids learning because it requires analytical thinking and provides a way to identify connections between disciplines (Marshall, 2010). Marshall states this strategy is best used with high school students.

To learn more about each of these strategies, read suggestions about how they can be used in the classroom, and to view examples of art created through the use of these strategies, download a copy of Marshall (2010). A link to her paper is available on the website of the College of Performing and Visual Arts at the University of Northern Colorado.


Literature Cited
Marshall, Julie. 2010. Five ways to integrate: Using strategies from contemporary art. Art Education. 63(3): 13-19. Web.
http://www.arts.unco.edu/ciae/institute/documents/Articles/Marshall-Five%20Ways%20to%20Integrate.pdf
[accessed 19 July 2012]


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Nature Artists in the Classroom

Posted in botanical art, botanical illustration, Education, general botany, Learning Opportunities, natural science illustration, tagged , , , , , on July 6, 2012 |

Nature Art
Science Art
Scientific Illustration
Natural Science Illustration

What do you call art that gets people thinking about nature and the environment?

Today I am going to use the label “natural history art” because it is nature that professor, Ashley Campbell, emphasizes in Avenues to Inspiration: Integrating the Life and Work of Nature Artists Into Middle School Science.

In her article, Campbell (2011) suggests several ways teachers can use art as a learning tool to connect with students whose reaction to the word “science” is less-than-positive.

Campbell (2011) suggests introducing students to the work of nature artists such as Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) and John James Audubon (1785-1851). She provides suggestions about how teachers can use the work of nature artists to teach students about biological processes, local plants and animals, and occupations in the fields of life science, physical science and art.

She also offers suggestions about how teachers can create a “Science & Art” (Campbell, 2011) component in their classrooms and how they can keep this component fresh and engaging from September to June through the use of themes and interactive activities.

To learn more about Ashley Campbell’s ideas, visit your local college library to get a copy of her article.


Literature Cited
Campbell, Ashley. 2011. Avenues to inspiration. Science Scope. 35(2): 24-30


Teachers, Here’s Another Idea!
Participate in conversations with artists and educators right here on this website. Since 2007, ArtPlantae Today has been where artists, naturalists and educators have learned from people who use art to bring attention to plants and to important issues in botany education. We learn from a different featured guest each month. Would you like to join us?

Bring ArtPlantae into your classroom!

Share this unique learning opportunity with other teachers!

Before you go, however, meet this month’s featured guest Heeyoung Kim. Heeyoung is a botanical artist, teacher and advocate for America’s prairies. Today she tells us how she creates art with a message.

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Teaching the Public About Plant-Pollinator Relationships

Posted in botanical art, botanical illustration, Education, gardening, Learning Opportunities, Sketching & Journaling, Special Articles & Interviews, Special Events, tagged , , on June 22, 2012 |

Valerie Littlewood has a lot of experience speaking with the public about pollinators. I asked her to describe the aspect of the plant-pollinator relationship with which the public is the least familiar.

She replied:

I think that many people are totally unaware of the number of insects that do pollinate flowers and crops but are also unaware of the needs of the insects. To thrive they need safe habitats, a variety of food, nesting sites, and a steady supply of both nectar and pollen plants throughout the year.

What else has Valerie observed?

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Valerie Littlewood Illustrates Pollinators & Plants

Posted in botanical art, botanical illustration, Education, general botany, Learning Opportunities, natural science illustration, Sketching & Journaling, Special Announcements, Special Events, tagged , , , , , on June 1, 2012 |

Join me in welcoming Valerie Littlewood, our featured guest for June!

Valerie has been a commercial illustrator, designer for industry, artist and art lecturer for many years. Most recently, she has been drawing plants and insects, becoming more and more interested in their relationships and their conservation. Currently she is drawing bees and other pollinators and has a traveling show, BUZZ: A Celebration of British Bees and Their Flowers, showcasing 24 of Britain’s bees. Valerie was awarded a bursary from The Society for All Artists in 2012 to help encourage creative people of all abilities to take inspiration from the natural world, from insects, bees and flowers and to understand more about their important relationship to us.

A hands-on artist, Valerie says she loves “everything about making art with brushes, pencils and paint.” Valerie made her living as a general illustrator creating illustrations for anything from packaging and advertising to book illustration. She also created illustrations as a giftware designer. Valerie does less commercial work these days because so much of the work she used to do is now done on the computer. Being a hands-on artist, Valerie says she is “very reluctant to sit at a computer all day.” So she has turned more of her attention to teaching.

Throughout her career, Valerie has always taught art — from degree students to “purely-for-pleasure art holidays.” She feels teaching is a wonderful way to open up possibilities for all kinds of people. Valerie has taught many subjects and has many interests herself. She is a printmaker, a painter, loves ceramics and bookmaking. She used to teach an interior design course teaching creative thinking and fine faux finishes. Her experiences as an artist and teacher have enabled her to be happy painting with a 6″ house brush or a 00 sable brush.

An admirer and advocate of craft skills, Valerie believes artists should hone their skills to be able to say what they want to say in their work.

Reflecting on an almost 40-year career as an artist, designer and educator, Valerie says the natural world has been a recurring theme in her work. While she may teach people how to draw and paint, she says her main preoccupation is to teach them to “see”.

(I teach students) to observe and to consider what is around them through the eyes of an artist. 
The observation and interpretation of the natural world can be the inspiration for so many of the artistic disciplines, from pattern and form to structure and colour informing sculpture, textiles, architecture and more.

Then there is the emotional connection we have with nature, things that we as humans relate to. A fascination with how things live, thrive, survive and reproduce and an affinity with their daily struggle. For example, how could you not admire the ingenuity of a little bee who makes her nest in a snail shell, who diligently collects twigs many times her own size to cover the shell and who chews little pieces of leaves to use as a green camouflage?


To practice art in any of its forms you first have to learn to look. Artists have to be observant. But it is so worth the effort because the added joy of that looking, seeing, and learning, especially in the field of natural sciences, is the understanding it brings. Then what hopefully follows is a greater connection with a world which can sometimes seem increasingly distant as we rely on machines more and more.

Certainly since painting the bees, I have become more aware of the astonishing variety and interdependence of living things, especially some of those small often overlooked creatures. I have become increasingly appreciative of how important they are in our lives.

Bombus hortorum on honeysuckle. © Val Littlewood. All rights reserved

Save the Date!
Pollinator Week
(June 18-24, 2012)

Valerie will discuss her work with Britain’s bees and the plants they pollinate during Pollinator Week. You will have the opportunity to ask Valerie questions during this annual event that brings attention to declining pollinator populations.

One of the topics Valerie will discuss is her book, BUZZ, dedicated to British bees and the plants they visit and pollinate. BUZZ is a self-published title. You can preview Valerie’s book here. Above is an example of the type of pollinator illustrations Valerie creates. Featured is an illustration of Bombus hortorum (Garden Bumble Bee). This species of Bombus has a long tongue it uses to access nectar from the long tubular flowers of the honeysuckle plant. While drinking nectar, pollen is deposited on the bee’s body. When the bee travels to another flower, it brings the pollen with it and deposits the pollen on the stigma of the new flower, thereby completing the transfer of pollen (i.e, pollination).

Unlike their longer-tongued counterparts, short-tongued bees are unable to access the nectar of honeysuckle flowers in the same way. This does not stop them from getting what they want, however. To get their share of the nectar, they bite holes into the base of the tubular flowers and steal the nectar. While this may be a win-win for the nectar robbers, this form of nectar harvesting negatively impacts pollination success because pollen is not transferred in the process.

Even the simple act of pollen transfer is not as simple as one might think!


Ask the Artist with Valerie Littlewood
Watch for more information about our conversation with Valerie during Pollinator Week. Share this information with colleagues, friends, fellow gardeners and the pollination ecology students in your life. Look for events in your state, download planting guides and learn about resources for the home gardener and professional landscaper here.


Gardens for Pollinators with the BeeSmart Pollinator Gardening App
Created by the Pollinator Partnership and Catch.com, this app is a database of almost 1,000 native plants found across the United States. To find pollinator-friendly plants for your garden, simply enter your zip code to view a list of plants for your area. Then sort through your list by selecting specific pollinators, flower colors, soil types, plant types or the type of sunlight your garden receives. To learn more about the BeeSmart Pollinator Gardening app click on the image above.


UPDATE: Pollinator Week Q&A with Valerie Littlewood

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Resources for Teachers & Students of Botanical Art

Posted in botanical art, botanical art books, botanical illustration, Education, general botany, Learning Opportunities, tagged , , , on May 11, 2012 |

Liz Leech’s new book, Botany for Artists, has been adopted by the English Gardening School as a recommended text. It joins other helpful references written for students of botany and botanical art. Which references do you like to use?

Teachers, which resources have you found most helpful while teaching?

Students, which resources do you like to use in your studies?

Find out why Botany for Artists has been called an “essential reference book” by teachers and students in the UK.

Join this conversation already in progress..

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What don’t people know about plants?

Posted in botanical art, Education, general botany, Learning Opportunities, tagged , , , on May 4, 2012 |

I asked this month’s featured guest, Liz Leech, to identify the aspect of plant biology she finds to be most unfamiliar to the public. She replied…

The most unfamiliar aspect of plant biology, and the greatest barrier, seems to me to be the ability to distinguish plant characteristics and therefore to differentiate between plants within generally recognizable broad groupings such as trees, grass, ferns, moss, flowers, seaweed etc. Most people can put typical examples into these rather loose “groupings” of plants but are lost as soon as they have to be more specific and have to look more closely at less obvious examples. For instance, I have found that most high school students, when faced with assessing how many different species there are in a patch of lawn, only recognized the existence of lawn daisies if the flowers were still left on! After mowing they gave 100% grass! Smaller plants and different grasses were certainly not “seen”.

Join this conversation already in progress…

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