The importance of plants for life on Earth (Buhner, 2002) is unquestionable. They have been used by humans as a food source for centuries (Wood, 1997). One of the most important things is that plants produce oxygen (Baker & Orlandi, 1995). Another function is that plants have supported other species as the home for many animal species and for other plants (Ogden, Hall & Tanita, 2013). Plants help with soil quality, because without quality soil, it is impossible to grow crops for human survival (Madejón et al., 2006). Plants are also important in the process of climate change (Sun et al., 2021). Another function is that plants can influence the mental health of people. People behave more positively due to the effect of plants (Hall & Knuth, 2019).
The lack of interest in plants, a phenomenon described by Wandersee & Schussler (1999) as "plant blindness", has been confirmed by many research papers. Parsley (2020) suggests using the term "plant awareness disparity". He views blindness as a visual impairment, as a handicap to which a negative connotation is assigned. The inability to see or notice plants in one's own environment, the inability to recognize the importance of plants, the inability to appreciate the aesthetic value should be understood as underdeveloped skills, not as a disability.
According to Wandersee & Schüssler (2001), one of the reasons for the insufficient perception of plants is the nature of the human system, in which the way visual information is processed plays an important role. During visual perception, the human eye generates more than 10 million data bits per second as input for visual processing, but our brain eventually receives about 40 bits of data per second, completely processing only 16 bits per second, which come to our conscious attention (Norretranders, 1998). The brain therefore mainly chooses movement, striking colors and patterns, objects that are known and objects that can pose a threat, which is typical especially for animals. Lower visual sensitivity to plants is therefore natural for humans.
The second reason for plant blindness, according to Allen (2003), is the bias of teachers, as most of them use examples from the animal kingdom to teach basic biological concepts. He notes that if most people do not realize their key role in preserving life on Earth, society does not tend to consider steps to conserve plant biodiversity or view plant biology research as important.
Another reason may be the way in which students become acquainted with plants. Cil (2016) states that people's knowledge of nature, depth and attitudes about it depends on the way they learn about it. Studies confirm the acquisition of knowledge about plants from the media or the family environment. Positive attitudes towards plants are supported by the presence of gardens in the family, work in them and interaction with them.
Therefore, even from the point of view of biology teachers, it is essential that they contribute to raising awareness of plants throughout society through targeted work with students. Jose et al. (2019) emphasize in their study that a committed biology teacher also plays an important role in shaping students' attitudes towards plants, giving them sufficient space in their teaching.
The teaching methods and learning activities that are being used are the reason for the lack of interest. Teaching is often teacher centered, failing to promote communicative and social skills. Teaching methods and activities have an influence on attitudes towards subjects (Schussler & Olzak, 2008). According to Kirby (2008), students should have the opportunity to touch plants, soil and see the community from different perspectives. Various activities that involve contact with plants can have a positive effect, e.g. plant planting, garden work, visits to botanical gardens and outdoor teaching. Learning should include organized trips to a botanical garden or park, spending time growing plants, researching flowers, and touching plants and seeds (Dopico & Garcia-Vazquez, 2011).
Teachers should use as much living material as possible and point out similar, identical and different features. They draw attention to the interdependence between plants and animals, and plant growth. It is appropriate in the teaching of botany to use the contrasting colors of fruits, which leads to increased attention and interest of children in them, and subsequently to a better memory. The author recommends focusing on plant toxicity, medical use or the possibility of causing death. Integrating botany with other subjects can be a good way to promote pupils' positive attitudes towards plants, especially if an instructional approach, based on the integration of plants with different disciplines, is used to promote interest and enjoyment in plants. Due to instructions that integrate different disciplines within one lesson, learning satisfaction is created (Çìl, 2016), because in such instruction, the target concepts are viewed in depth in different contexts.
Learning should be an active process and hands-on activities allow children to construct their own conceptual understandings (Piaget, 1968). According to Costa (2003), students' experience is an effective way to acquire knowledge and make students more active learners Cetin (2003). They enjoy an inquiry-based class and have a preference for hands-on activities over a traditional lecture class McConnell, Steer, and Owens (2003). Hands-on learning stations are an effective way to enhance teachers’ conceptual understandings (Bulunuz & Jarrett, 2010) and can be used to enhance motivation, interest or teach concepts.
One of the effective techniques for teaching basic concepts is learning at stations. It is a pedagogical tool, an active method which allows students to participate in a variety of hands-on activities and be actively engaged in the learning process (Judson, 2019).
The learning with the stations method has been well known for a long time in many countries in language education but is rarely applied in science lessons. Although it is not a new idea, it is not sufficiently used in practice. It is practically applicable in all subjects. It is a form of cooperative learning and one of the forms of open learning. The idea is based on training system from sports. The teacher defines rules and makes stations and recommendations.
All stations are aimed at a partial target, with distributed tasks which work together towards the main common goal. One goal to be achieved is approached in many ways (one goal - many approaches). Some stations can be optional, not all must be required. Students should complete tasks according to the rules without the interference of a teacher. Each task is prepared so as to be completed independently without other stations. They solve tasks individually, in pairs or in small groups (Einecke, 2014; Schweitzer, 1995). This gives students the freedom to choose cooperation. Typical objectives of the method involving modeling scientific behaviors include observing (Schweitzer, 1995), classifying, inferring, testing and communicating.
The range of tasks and activities should be wide so as to involve as many senses as possible in learning - sight, hearing, touch, smell, or taste. Learning at stations as a method uses the principle of internal differentiation of the group; the class and stations are individualized. This variation is prepared for different student skills and learning styles. The character of the tasks is quite different as it also counts with each learning type in terms of sensory preference (visual-verbal, visual-visual, auditory, kinesthetic type), or in terms of the predominant type of intelligence. Each station consists of a different task of a different level and severity, containing different materials, activities (experiment, text, models). According to Schweitzer (1995), one of the most important requirements for successful stations is that each station must have a problem for students to solve and keep activities simple and straightforward. Students make decisions where to work because the method offers a number of different stations. They can choose stations in any order they want and can work independently. Other tasks with different levels of difficulty can be added for gifted students. There are tasks that should or need to be solved, which is a certain basic pension. These are the subject of the final discussion, the evaluation in the final phase. The intensity of the work is also determined by the student himself, according to current or even overall dispositions. The student has the opportunity to regulate his activity himself and learn to take responsibility for their learning environment (Schweitzer, 1995). The advantage is that students work on their tasks simultaneously and no time is wasted by one performing and the other watching. Everyone is working on a specific task at a given moment until they go through all the stations. It is not even crucial for everyone to do everything, as the principle of free will in the choice of tasks and the pace of work is quite accentuated.
The Slovakian curriculum regarding to high schools (ISCED 3) and where the topic about toxic plants and toxicity is included is on the low level. This topic belongs to educational field called “Human and Nature” and for the toxic plants is only one hour defined in School Educational Program. There belong also kinds of information about other toxic organisms like fungi, for example. However, biology teachers have got a possibility to revise approximately 30% of the biology curriculum on your own, so maybe some teachers are using this space and time for the teaching about toxic plants.
Students have to first visit all the stations. The teacher should relate how many stations were prepared, how much time should be spent at stations, explain the task of the stations and which ones are obligatory. The teacher should promote self-organized learning with the responsibility of students. She or he observe the work and can sometimes help. Students learn to work in groups, communicate and organize learning with classmates.
The purpose of the research was to describes the method in practice, its use and whether or not it would help change misconceptions and build accurate content knowledge about toxic plants. The method was developed and tested in biology education, in the field of botany.