The plant kingdom can be learned more successfully if tasks involve direct contact with elements of the plant world and students have the possibility of working cooperatively in small groups within the secondary school classroom. This paper analyses student understanding of the general and floral physiology of angiosperms within a…

Although citizenship's literacy in biodiversity is a promising way of confronting its loss, the unawareness about this topic is generalised particularly regarding plants. The latter phenomenon, named Plant Blindness (PB), not only refers to the inability to notice and identify the surrounding plants, but also to the lack of knowledge about the…

We designed and evaluated a student laboratory workshop on plant-based vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The workshop focused on hands-on laboratory techniques, including DNA extraction from rice seeds, where the recombinant protein was produced, detection of the transgene, and basic concepts on how vaccines work in the human body to offer…

Species literacy is an important aspect of biodiversity education. This study assesses the ability of secondary students (12/13 years old; n = 944) to list wild animals and plants and aims to determine whether this is linked with their interest in nature, their preferences towards animals and plants and different groups therein, the school type…

Plant awareness disparity (PAD), formerly known as plant blindness, refers to the fact of overlooking or failing to perceive plants, perhaps due to poor 'species literacy'. Despite numerous efforts made by scientists and educators over the years, PAD is still present in students at all educational levels. An assessment was carried out on 259…

Problems associated with the environment loom large over the future well-being of young generations. A previous issue of PISA in Focus (PISA in Focus 87) shows that in 2015 many 15-year-old students believed that the future -- their future -- was going to be worse, environmentally, than the present. In particular, only a minority of students…