Sep 22 2008
Where Plants Come From
Simple answers are certainly attractive. If a child asks, “Daddy, where did that plant come from?” saying, “Gawd done it,” is quick and easy, but it does nothing to increase an individual’s understanding of a very complex world.
Many plants begin life as seeds. Well, they begin THEIR life as seeds, for there were “parental” gametes before the seed. In other words, there was life before life. And a seed doesn’t grow in a vacuum, so to fully understand how the present form of a plant came to be, you’ve got to include water, sunlight, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and oxygen into the mix.
In a developmental psychology class I teach, I recently discussed with students how open-ended questions better promote cognitive development in children. Not yes/no, not true/false, not multiple choice, but something more like fill-in-the-blank or even short answer/essay questions. These questions require more work to answer. But work can be a good thing.
Simple is attractive. And sometimes simple is good. But many times it is not.
