Authentic Research Investigations of a Controversial Question: Can Plants Learn?

Jessica Shin; Étienne Serbe; Gregory J. Gage

doi:10.1525/abt.2021.83.4.222

How to translate text using browser tools

5 May 2021 Authentic Research Investigations of a Controversial Question: Can Plants Learn?

Jessica Shin, Étienne Serbe, Gregory J. Gage

Author Affiliations +

The American Biology Teacher, 83(4):222-228 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2021.83.4.222

Abstract

Can plants learn? This question stirs up controversy and speculation in the classroom, as it is currently doing in the scientific community at large. We leverage the controversy to ask students to contribute to the greater body of knowledge by using scientific principles in creative research projects. Ninth-grade honors biology students became familiar with original research and the surrounding controversy, and performed experiments testing two distinct forms of plant learning in Pisum sativum (pea) and Mimosa pudica (sensitive plant).

© 2021 by The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press's Reprints and Permissions web page, https://www.ucpress.edu/journals/reprints-permissions.

Citation Download Citation

Jessica Shin, Étienne Serbe, and Gregory J. Gage "Authentic Research Investigations of a Controversial Question: Can Plants Learn?," The American Biology Teacher 83(4), 222-228, (5 May 2021). https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2021.83.4.222

Published: 5 May 2021

KEYWORDS/PHRASES

PUBLICATION TITLE:

COLLECTION:

PUBLICATION YEARS