Teaching plant biology through “Plant senses”—a more engaging, holistic approach and introduction

Abstract

Higher education offers unique ways to provide students with knowledge of plant biology, as well as an engaging lens through which plants may be seen and appreciated. The tremendous volume of knowledge sometimes calls for introducing a different conceptual view to students who aim to become involved in plant research and related fields. It requires stepping back to consider the plant as a whole organism, connected to other organisms within an ecosystem and as a complex living form with its own plant-specific senses. Inspired by several bestselling books in this field, I launched a Plant Senses course. When using the Plant Senses tool to teach plant biology it is challenging to prevent students from over-interpreting and projecting animal features onto the plants, yet avoid an elitist zoocentric position that denies plant capacities we cannot observe with our animal perception. My course attempts to stimulate students to see the ecological importance of plants for much of life on this planet and to draw their attention to the economic value of plants to human societies. Here, I present the structure of the course and the topics covered. Further, I discuss the potential to spread this approach to other curricula and how these different fields may benefit from implementing such a course.