Engaging students with plant science: the Plant Science TREE

Anne Osbourn

“…This to my knowledge is the first genetic evidence demonstrating a direct role for natural products in suppression of the growth of other plant species. I like the diversity of papers that are published in New Phytologist , from sterol biosynthesis in diatoms (Fabris et al ., ) to root traits of plants that grow in the tundra (Iversen et al ., ), and letters on engaging students with plant science (Levesley et al ., ) and building the foundations for an open perspective on synthetic biology research and innovation (Rant & Tait, ).…”

Digital teaching tools and global learning communities

“…This program benefits the students who have the opportunity to interact with a scientist and glean their expertise in the design and interpretation of their experiment, but also the mentors who have an opportunity for hands-on experience in science education ( Adams & Hemingway, 2014 ; Hemingway et al , 2015 ). Additional plant science resources have been developed by The Gatsby Charitable Foundation in the form of The Plant Science Tree ( http://www.tree.leeds.ac.uk/ ), which provides educational resources in the form of online lectures, lecture slides, movies, practicals and images contributed from the research community ( Levesley et al , 2012 ; Levesley et al , 2014 ), and an inquiry-based laboratory module has been published as “The Plant Detective’s Manual”, developed by scientists at the Australian National University ( Estavillo et al , 2014 ).…”