Marie A. C. Langham,
South Dakota State University
- Are you an Agricultural Sciences teacher who wants to stress the importance of pest management in crop production?
- Do you want to offer your Biology class "something different"?
- Are you a History teacher who wants to illustrate the causes behind historic events such as the French Revolution or the defeat of Peter the Great?
- Could your AP Biology class benefit from a unit on fungi or other microbes?
- Are you looking for a subject, such as the Irish Potato Famine, that can be used for coordinating history, social studies, biology or political science units?
- Do you need to demonstrate the effect of crop losses on consumer prices for an economics lecture?
- Are you a Family and Consumer Sciences teacher who needs information on factors, such as mycotoxins, which affect food quality or the story behind the invention of gingersnap cookies?
If any of the above questions sound familiar or intriguing, you've come to the right place to find this material and to learn more about what the American Phytopathological Society (APS) has to offer you and your students. Whether its background information for yourself, examples for your students, or a variety of other needs, APS has many services from which you can benefit.
First among these services is this e-journal, The Plant Health Instructor. The journal includes sections entitled 'K-12 Pathways to Science', 'Introductory Plant Pathology', 'Advanced Plant Pathology', and 'Instructor Resources'. In the K-12 Pathways to Sciences, you will find: 'New and Views', 'Programs and Workshops', 'Lessons and Laboratories', 'Glossary', 'Resource Guide', 'Mentors', and 'Bulletin Boards'. In other sections, you will find 'Plant Disease Lessons', 'Introduction to Pathogen Groups', and many other useful areas. Explore these areas and introduce yourself to the many items available through The Plant Health Instructor (http://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/Pages/). APS also provides other services that can be found on the main website (http://www.apsnet.org), including items such as 'APSnet Feature' stories and 'Image of the Week' that highlight current issues in Plant Pathology.
Other valuable resources available through APS are the books, CD-ROMS, and slide sets offered by APS Press (https://my.apsnet.org/APSStore). You will find compendia which cover a range of plant diseases affecting a specific crop, books or other materials such as The Biology of Fungal Pathogens and The Aphid-A Virus Vector (CD-ROM), videos on topics such as Late Blight and the Irish Potato Famine or Dutch Elm Disease and the American Elm, and slide sets with illustrations of diseases on many crops or pathogens. APS Press also provides a number of books, such as Plant Diseases: Their Biology and Social Impact, that are valuable classroom and background information sources.
In summary, APS, as the professional organization that represents plant pathologists across the United States and throughout the world, is actively involved in outreach to the educational community. Our educational outreach goals are to promote the understanding of plant pathology and to educate people about plant pathology and associated sciences. As you begin to look forward and develop your lesson plans and units for the next school year, take a few minutes to see what APS can add to your classroom.
