Children's Education - New York Botanical Garden

What Do Plant Scientists Do?

Learning Objectives

National Science Education Standards

Background Information

A herbarium is a library of dried and pressed plants. These specimens can last for hundreds of years. Plant scientists use these to study the ecology and classification of plants.
A botanist is a scientist who studies plants. Botanists often travel all over the world to study plants and collect specimens for a herbarium.
An ethnobotanist studies the many different ways people use plants. This can include how traditional peoples use plants for medicine, clothing, food, shelter, and decoration.
A plant taxonomist classifies plants according to differences and similarities..

Pre-Visit Activities

Explain the different work done by various kinds of plant scientists. Let students select one about which to write a story in the first person.
A good herbarium specimen should contain different parts of a plant, such as leaves, stem, flowers, roots, and if possible, fruit. Draw a herbarium specimen, and label its parts.
Make a herbarium specimen. Collect a plant and press it between sheets of paper. When dry, glue it to a clean piece of paper. Add a label that includes your name, the date and location of collection, and the common and scientific names of the plant. Field guides can help you identify the plant.
Pair up and describe or illustrate how the herbarium specimens differ from one another.
Draw a Venn diagram (two overlapping circles). Select two plants, then list the differences in the non-overlapping areas and all similarities in the overlapping are as.

Inquiry Activities at the Garden

As botanists on an expedition, “discover” two “new” plants of your choosing. Describe them as though they are new to science. A camera can help create a “virtual herbarium” containing images of your plants.
Choose two plants to compare. Describe how they are the same and how they are different. Use a dissecting scope, hand lens, or microscope to observe tiny differences.
Count the different kinds of plants in a small area. How many of each type are there? Draw conclusions about the are a’s plant diversity.
List the number of plant products in your lunch. Draw conclusions about our dependence on plants from this “data.”

Who wants to be a botanist?

Botanists are good question askers . See if you can ask good questions about the following statements.

Each species of plant is unique; no two are exactly alike.

Many kinds of plants in remote places have yet to be discovered.

Some plants may hold the cure to deadly diseases like cancer and AIDS.

Suggested Galleries

Post-Visit Activities

Create a classroom herbarium. Collect local plants and note the location and conditions when collecting (or take a picture).
As a class, decide how to organize the plants (native versus exotic, broadleaf versus needle leaf, flowering versus non-flowering plant).
Invite other classes to visit the herbarium and have students act as Explainers.
Make and decorate Discovery Boxes filled with real plant parts, pictures, drawings, or items made from plant parts.
Make a Sorting Table by drawing circles on paper, arranged in a pyramid shape. Place leaves, fruits or nuts in the first circle, then divide according to a characteristic of your choosing (size, shape, color). How many items can be sorted? How many ways can each be sorted?
List the number of products or items made of plants in the classroom, school, or home. What can be concluded about humans’ dependence on plants?

Resources

Science Nature Guide. 1994. Trees of North America. San Diego, Calif.: Thunder Bay Press.

Watts, Claire, and Alexandra Parsons. 1992. Make It Work! Plants: The Hands-on Approach to Science. Ocala, Fla.: Action Publishing.

Howell, Laura, Kirsten Rogers, and Corinne Henderson. 2001. The Usborne Library of Science World of Plants. London: Usborne Publishing.