Flowers with powers – conception and evaluation of an ‘educational seed mix’

Abstract

ABSTRACT Plant blindness has been widely examined in plant education research. However, practical attempts to counteract the common disregard of plants are rare, especially in standard school contexts. We developed and evaluated a teaching concept based upon an ‘Educational Seed Mix’ comprising eight annual species from six different plant families. With it, students aged 10 to 15 can experience plant diversity, connect to their own plant, observe its growth from seed to flower and learn about flower biology in an authentic learning situation. In our evaluation study with secondary school students from Germany (N = 109), we found interest in the project beforehand and feelings of success and high enthusiasm for plant growing afterwards. Further, we found improved performances in tasks concerning taxonomy and flower biology and students showed enhanced concepts of the lifecycle of flowering plants. The project appealed to students as well as teachers. Overall, the Educational Seed Mix is easy to use in school contexts, engages students with plants, and is thus an approach to counteract plant blindness.