Promoting plant awareness is considered a main goal of biological education. Plant
awareness is particularly relevant in teachers, who oversee the botanical education
of future generations. The literature highlights the need to develop plant
knowledge, experience in outdoor education, and enthusiasm for plants in preservice
teachers.
• We designed a didactic sequence contextualized at an organic garden, constituted
by both artistic and scientific activities. The artistic perspective consisted of drawing
based on observation (prominently, botanical illustration), with the aim of constructing
knowledge on plant morphology, and promoting emotional engagement
through appreciation of plants' beauty.
• Several instruments were used to collect information on initial ideas and the process
of learning, outstandingly mind maps, a type of multimodal diagram used to
represent ideas on a topic by means of drawings and text. A qualitative procedure
was developed to analyze them, encompassing three perspectives: information
structure, artistic performance (e.g., graphic richness), and scientific performance
(plant knowledge, per content categories). Obtained data were subsequently analyzed
through statistical tests.
• This preliminary study shows that knowledge of plant morphology was developed
through botanical illustration, incorporated by pre-service teachers, and used in
final mind maps. Significant improvements were observed in certain dimensions of
plant awareness, related to plant knowledge and the aesthetic appreciation of
their biological characteristics.
