The value of plants in our everyday lives is incalculable for the very reason that human life would not be possible without plants. Not only are plants necessary to meet our everyday needs (food, feed, fuel, fiber, pharmaceuticals), they also are an important part of human culture. You can find plants illustrated on money, in the details of buildings (architecture), in song (music), in poems and stories (literature), in paintings (art), as symbols and connected in many other ways to human cultures around the world. Every aspect of our lives is affected by plants and thus, school disciplines (not just science) should include plants as subjects of study.

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“Intellectual life should not be construed as two cultures of science and humanities at war, or even at variance. Human culture arose from the material substance of a complex brain; and science and art meld in continuity.”
Gould & Purcell (2000, p. 82)

In his now famous Rede Lecture, Snow (1969) expressed concern over division of the intellectual life of western society into two cultures; literary intellectuals on one side of the divide and scientific intellectuals on the other. One of Snow's greatest concerns was over the lack of communication between these two cultures. Increased specialization within the sciences and humanities is cited as a reason for this communication gap. Snow's solution to closing the divide was through "rethinking our education." A solid educational grounding in both the sciences and humanities, explicit curriculum connections between subjects, and interdisciplinary communication between professional educators at all levels should narrow the gap between the two cultures.

K-12 educational reform in the sciences, mathematics, and technology has been strongly promoted by the National Research Council (NRC, 1996), the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) via Project 2061, and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). Part of the NRC and AAAS reform effort includes interdisciplinary links (i.e., curriculum connections) among many disciplines (AAAS, 1998). While plant study typically occurs in biology, incorporating these important organisms into other disciplines within the K-12 curriculum can easily be done - including connecting the sciences with humanities. These connections can be woven into K-12 education in several ways and at many levels, therefore below are three links based on connections between plant biology and 1) other academic disciplines (interdisciplinary), 2) real-world connections, and 3) the world of work (see AAAS, 1998, p. 126).

“The greatest enterprise of the mind has always been and always will be the attempted linkage of the sciences and humanities” Wilson (1998, p. 8)

Interdisciplinary connections with plant biology - plants and math, art, history, etc.

Real-world connections with plant biology.

• United States Botanical Garden
• The National Arboretum
• United States Department of Agriculture
• American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta
• Missouri Botanical Garden
• New York Botanical Garden
• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• Careers in Botany
• American Horticulture Society
• American Society for Horticulture Science
• How People Learn

National Science Education Stds.

References:

AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science). 1998. Blueprints for
reform: science, mathematics, and technology education. Oxford University Press. NY.

Gould, S.J. 2003. The hedgehog, the fox, and the magister’s pox: mending the gap
between science and the humanities. Harmony Books. NY.

----- & R.W. Purcell. 2000. Crossing over: where art and science meet. Three
Rivers Press. NY.

NRC (National Research Council). 1996. National Science Education Stds.
National Academy Press. Washington D.C.

Snow, C.P. 1969. The two cultures: and a second look. Cambridge University Press.
Wilson, E.O. 1998. Consilience. Knopf. NY.