Soft rot diseases cause crop losses all over the world. These losses can have large economic impacts and threaten international food security. Soft rot bacterial pathogens produce pectolytic enzymes that attack the pectin around plant cells resulting in smelly, wet, and mushy tissue maceration. Once symptoms are visible, the crop cannot be used or…

Humans have long sought to understand the forces that shape the diversity of living creatures on our planet. This work is primarily concerned with examining one such force--the historical action of natural selection--from practical, philosophical, and pedagogical perspectives. The first half is concerned with a suite of genetic mechanisms in…

Plant awareness disparity (PAD, formerly plant blindness) is the tendency not to notice plants in one's environment. PAD is made of four components: attention (not noticing plants), attitude (not liking plants), knowledge (not understanding why plants are important), and relative interest (being less interested in plants than in animals). This can…

Cloud-based geospatial technologies are rapidly improving the flow of information from the environment to end-users. Cloud-based photo storage websites were used to create and manage species and spatial-temporal metadata in a digital photographic inventory of plant flowering observations collected at Lake Issaqueena, SC from January, 2012 to…

College level botany education in the United States is gradually being phased out of science and agriculture departments. The absence of botany courses creates a problem because there is an increasing need for trained botanist in the United States workforce, making it important to train teachers in botany so they can inspire the next generation of…

Institutions of higher learning are recently being held more accountable for the learning outcomes of their students. As such, universities have begun to actively measure and evaluate student learning and motivational outcomes in an effort to improve the successful outcomes of their students. To support this work, two studies were conducted to…

Just as elementary students enter the science classroom with prior knowledge and experiences, so do preservice elementary teachers who enter the science methods classroom. Elementary science methods instructors recognize the challenges associated with preparing teachers for the science classroom. Two of these challenges include overcoming limited…

This study examined the value added to standard textbook-based instruction of plant biodiversity by the use of the exemplary interactive CD-ROM, "Conserving Earth's Biodiversity." This CD-ROM features renowned conservation figure E.O. Wilson. The setting of the research was an introductory biology course in a rural public community…

The purpose of this research was to determine how an inquiry-based, whole-plant instructional strategy would affect preservice elementary teachers' understanding of plant science principles. This study probed: what preservice teachers know about plant biology concepts before and after instruction, their views of the interrelatedness of plant parts…