Publications

In this section of the website you will find a diverse range of publications which have been designed to offer support for teaching about plants in the curriculum. Some of the publications are available in printed format whereas others are available on the web. Some of the publications listed here also appear on different parts of the SAPS website.

Some items are linked very closely to topics in the curriculum (ranging from primary to post-16). Other areas encourage you to extend your interests and explore outside the constraints of the teaching curriculum.

You can read material already published by SAPS, and you can find background material written specifically to help you in your teaching and understanding of plant topics. Alternatively you can read articles published in journals, download a selection or browse your way through a number of other websites.

Applying your Science

Within this section of the website you will find a cluster of 3 activities (Lungs, Pollen, Asthma and Allergies; Cell Division, Cancer and Cancer Treatment; Diet, Diabetes and Obesity) which have been developed with support from AstraZeneca. The resources, which can be accessed here, aim at bringing contemporary science into the classroom.

Articles from the Literature

Members of the SAPS team often publish their ideas in the wider scientific literature and details of such articles are listed here. Why not visit the list of available articles from SAPS to see if there is anything that would interest you? In the sections Browsing the Journals and Broaden your Horizons we have clustered together a range of published materials suitable for teachers and post-16 students.

Articles for Post-16 Students

In this section you will find 3 articles, all written by Stephen Day, which are aimed at students on post-16 bioscience programmes. Each article has an associated ‘Teacher’s Guide’ which provides answers to the questions in the articles together with suggestions for further reading and activities.

Photosynthesis

We have gathered together a number of publications related to photosynthesis. Further information is available here.

Osmosis

OSMOSIS is the SAPS newsletter. In the period to January 2008, it was published two or three times a year and sent to those on the SAPS mailing list. Osmosis contained short articles, ideas for investigations and usually a 'student sheet' with detailed instructions for a practical activity. From 2002, a separate "Primary OSMOSIS" was issued alongside the main newsletter.

You can access past issues of Osmosis here.

Plant Identification

The SAPS online identification guides aim to help you achieve success with identification of plant material that you may encounter in your teaching and learning. These guides are suitable for using with a wide age range - from primary through to post-16. Access more information about the guides here.

Plants in the News

This section of the website has been designed in order to create links to recent news stories (mainly in printed format) which contain interesting and/or useful information about plants. In addition to giving the URL of the article/story each entry contains a brief synopsis and a list of related SAPS web pages. Plants in the News can be accessed here.

Plants for Primary Pupils

The booklets in the series "Plants for primary pupils" aim to cover all aspects of the primary curriculum (for England, Wales and Northern Ireland and for Scotland). The booklets provide plenty of ideas for activities, games to reinforce learning and investigations that encourage pupils to explore the world of plants. Reach the series here.

Plant Science Image Database (PSID)

PSID is a collection of images of whole plants, images of parts of plants, of the insides of plants and of plants in their environment. The selection of images has been made to provide useful support to the teaching of plant science topics in the curricula, based on those used in the UK. For each image there is some accompanying text to help explain the context and particular features shown. Access the database here

Practical Activities

SAPS has been involved in the development of a wide range of practical activities for use with students in both primary and secondary. The bulk of these resources are located within the Mainly Primary and Mainly Secondary areas of the website. More information about practical activities is available here

Survival Guides

We have produced two so-called Survival Guides (one on Concentrations and Dilutions and the other on the correct use of Symbols and Units) to help your students with their studies on post-16 courses. These guides can be accessed here.

Search

There are many other parts of the website where you will find resources and protocols to support your teaching and learning. In particular, why not check out the sections Mainly Secondary, Mainly Primary and Educational Resources. If you can’t find a specific topic listed in this section of the website you could use the Search Facility which will allow you to search the entire SAPS website.