ASPB EDUCATION FORUM

Green Cures for the Summertime* Blues
What’s a responsible plant scientist to do when it seems that everyone’s brain cells are drying up in the hot summer sun? Well, as ever, plants and the scientists who love them are a lush resource for dealing with sticky, stultifying situations. Try suggesting these plant-minded activities to your kids, neighbors, or colleagues and help them kick the summertime blues. Although many of these options have an educational bent, mostly they’re just a bit of fun.

Tune In
Listen live, access the archives, or podcast these fun and informative shows supported by ASPB and the ASPB Education Foundation:

The Plant Detective, starring Flora Delaterre (voiced by ASPB member Beth Judy), is a series of 90-second shows featuring the worldwide adventures of Detective Delaterre as she searches for specific medicinal plants and discourses on their benefits, risks, and efficacy. A coordinated coloring book is available through the website.

MicrobeWorld, offers hundreds of unique 90-second radio episodes that highlight the process of discovery, historical changes in research, and a variety of scientific careers. Each radio feature includes an interview segment with a leading scientist in the field, including plant biology.

A Moment of Science (AMOS), offers two-minute radio programs on the wonders of science. Listeners learn cool facts about plant biology and many other areas of science. Site users can e-mail requests for new topics to be aired.

Play on the Computer

Genomics Digital Lab (GDL), is a top-notch online game set in a continually expanding interactive biological environment. It’s so good, it took first place in the NSF 2008 Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge, GDL is part of ASPB member David Salt’s Genomics eXplorer interactive walk-through plant cell museum exhibit. ASPB provides free online versions of three game modules that allow gamers to explore interactions in chloroplasts, mitochondria, and the nucleus.

Greenseedling is a visually appealing, fun-to-navigate plant science news source that was launched in 2006 by ASPB member Jen Moon (University of Texas at Austin). Site content is written by student writers skilled at attracting readers in a Web 2.0 world. Enjoy some plant-centric news you can use or simply jump on the Fun Stuff page to play Sci-Duko or learn how to grow a glowing tomato.

Meta!Blast is a 3D game being created by a research team headed by ASPB member Eve Syrkin Wurtele (Iowa State University). Dr. Clara Phyllton and her crew must save the world’s last plant—a soybean—and thus the human race. But they get stuck in a soybean’s cell, leaving only a lowly dishwasher in their lab to get them out and save the world. Meta!Blast is under development, but check out the site anyway to see what’s germinating in the virtual plant world.

Watch a Movie

FEATURE FILMS
The “Killer Tomato” series (PG)—Make some spaghetti with red sauce and host a four-part film fest about what happens when good produce goes very, very bad:

1. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (1978). The title is the plot. Fans of wacky horror movie spoofs or bad special effects will lap it up.
2. Return of the Killer Tomatoes! (1988). Mad genetic scientist Professor Gangreen creates a race of mighty tomato warriors and one tomato alpha-woman. Funnier than its predecessor, this one also features a young George Clooney.
3. Killer Tomatoes Strike Back (1990). Gangreen returns with a plot to turn “couch potatoes” into “rad tomatoes” for his evil Tomatocracy.
4. Killer Tomatoes Eat France (1991). A new strain of invasive tomatoes from Gangreen’s lab is released during the crazed geneticist’s attempt to take over Paris.

Little Shop of Horrors (1986, PG13). In this musical comedy of kitschy horror, Seymour is a flower shop clerk and exotic plants hobbyist. As customers flock in to see an amazing specimen named Audrey II, Seymour discovers the plant needs human blood to survive. Audrey II’s hunger pangs grow and so do Seymour’s worries about where to get her next meal.

Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989, not rated). Biollante is a huge plant monster created from the genes of a rose, a foolish scientist’s daughter, and Godzilla. With Venus flytrap-ish skills, corrosive juices, and off-the-charts mutation rates, Biollante is 200,000 tons of horror! Spoiler Alert: Their final battle is available on YouTube.

Check out more carnivorous plants on film. The plant perps in each film are identified by their scientific names, and commentary is peppered (sometimes using salty phrasing) with biological insight ASPB members may truly appreciate.

Medicine Man (1992, PG13). A research scientist can’t duplicate his methods for extracting a cure for cancer from Brazilian rain forest flora. Pressure builds as developers threaten the forest, and—even worse!—an American bureaucrat who controls the scientist’s grant money arrives with demands for immediate results. The horror!

Adaptation (2002, R). Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman must adapt Susan Orlean’s listless novel, The Orchid Thief. Kaufman’s script pairs Orlean with a difficult Florida man arrested for stealing a rare orchid from a wilderness preserve; sometimes funny crank-meets-swank interactions ensue. Meanwhile, Orlean and Kaufman both struggle with existential angst in real life.

Bee Movie (2007, PG). Barry B. Benson is a disillusioned bee craving action outside the hive. He joins the “pollen jocks” and his adventures begin. This animated amalgamation buzzes with all the most important themes: social justice, young love, and the critical role of flowering plants in the world’s survival.

YouTube Videos
This new niche of web-based videos is designed to awaken student interest in the really cool stuff that goes on in plant biology. Plant videos for YouTube, were developed from a contest initially sponsored by the ASPB Education Foundation’s 2008 Grant Awards Program, and created by ASPB member Daniel Cosgrove (Pennsylvania State University).

GRAND PRIZE WINNER
Fertile Eyes by Ela Lamblin. Read You Gotta See ’Em to Believe ’Em: Plant Biology Videos from ChloroFilms for full contest details and a list of winners.

OTHER SHORT FILMS
Petunias & RNA Interference (RNAi), shows how a wayward petunia helped plant biologists unveil how RNAi molecules can provide enormously important medical treatment options. This fun and accurate cartoon video featuring ASPB member Rich Jorgenson (University of Arizona) clarifies the basics of gene expression and explains the function of RNAi—all in just 15 minutes!

Plants-In-Motion. Meditate with this site’s peacefully beautiful and technically accurate images of the varied motions plants make during their life cycle. This cleverly artistic resource created by ASPB member Roger Hangarter (Indiana University) pairs well with the close-up views of plants Roger also provides at his sLowlife site.

Purdue Agronomy Cartoons, are simple, accurate, and fun for the youngest biologists. Titles created with direction from ASPB members Susan Cunningham and Sherry Fulk-Bringman include Travels of Bob, the Soil Bacterium; Freddy’s Friends; and Splish-Splash—The Adventures of a Water Drop. Print versions and follow-up puzzles are also available at the site.

Get Lost in a Good Book

PICTURE BOOKS
A Plant Called Spot, by Nancy J. Peteraf and Lillian Hoban, demonstrates that plants are pet worthy.
Plantpet, by Elise Primavera. Really, they are!
Jack and the Beanstalk, by Steven Kellogg, is a beautiful retelling of the classic tale.
Jack and the Meanstalk, by Brian and Rebecca Wildsmith, by contrast, offers a rather different perspective on the classic.

CHAPTER BOOKS FOR YOUTH
The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks, by Nancy McArthur (series), shows that, pet worthy or not, some plant pets are trickier than others.
Weslandia, by Paul Fleischman, proffers the wonders of a truly plant-based economy.
Fables from the Garden (Hawaii), by Leslie Ann Hayashi and Kathleen Wong Bishop, is a must read for those on their way to Honolulu for Plant Biology 2009.

GENERAL MARKET FICTION
Buzzword, by Walton Cook, has plant biologists striving to save the world (see sidebar on page 23 for details).
Prodigal Summer, by Barbara Kingsolver, explores the wild interplay among forest, farm, and human biology.
The Family Tree, by Sheri S. Tepper, has sentient plants taking on global eco-disaster amid multiple human traumas.

Be sure to enjoy a few of these fun summertime diversions yourself. You’re bound to be entertained and you may even find something useful for the students crowding back into your lab or classroom this fall.

*Apologies to any ASPB members in the Southern Hemisphere who have only the span of a midwinter break to enjoy these activities (or who must wait until their summer arrives to give ample time to enjoy each option).