WANDERSEE, JAMES H.* AND ELISABETH E. SCHUSSLER. Louisiana State University, 15° Laboratory, 223-F Peabody Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803. - National Survey on the Public's Perception of Plants.
In February 2000, the authors conducted a national study of the
public's perception of plants. The investigation involved 502
participants from 26 states. It was designed in conjunction with BSA's
"Botany for the Next Millennium" document and the authors'
own Theory of Plant Blindness (ABT,1999). This survey probed
participants' perception level for plants in their environment, their
past plant-related activities, the relative importance they ascribe to
plants in their life, their plant identification skills, the influence
of others on their perceptions and understandings of plants, their
knowledge of plant experts, their ranked importance of various uses
of plants, and their perceived knowledge of plant organs. The study
focused on "Generation Y" youth--which includes the age of
students now in high school and undergraduate college classrooms
(n=302), and on women with children (n=200), who are currently
involved in raising our nation's youth. Chi-square analysis and
cross-tabulation, as well as analysis of agreement using Cohen's
kappa, Pearson's r correlation coefficient, and Krippendorf's content
analysis, were used to interpret the survey item responses. Model
response patterns for today's teenagers and for today's active mothers
were constructed--with similarities and differences between groups
highlighted. Finally, implications for botanical education were drawn,
centering upon the study's finding that prior informal educational
experiences with plants appear to be a key instructional variable, and
on the finding that the mother's plant-related experiences signal the
plant-related experiences that she will provide for her children.
Key words: botanical education, plant blindness, public understanding of science, visual cognition