Content Quality
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
- Other Issues and Comments:
While this material is likely engaging for children, it has a number of factual inaccuracies that could be fixed. A few examples include:
Some errors:
Case 1
"Photosynthesis is unique to green plants!" Nearly all lineages of life have photosynthetic members, except the unikonts (our lineage).
"The style leads to the ovary that contains the female egg cells called ovules." Ovules are not egg cells. The glossary definition is better.
The image in "plant parts-fruits" has the embryo labeled as only the embryonic axis. The cotyledons are part of the embryo, not separate from it.
"Plants use carbon dioxide in the air and return oxygen." This is true. Plants also use oxygen and return carbon dioxide, just like animals.
In the "What parts of the plant do we eat?": Under Seeds, green beans are listed. These are fruits. Under Stems, celery and rhubarb are listed. Celery and rhubarb both are the petioles of leaves, not stems. Onion is listed. Onions (the part we eat) are modified leaves, not stems.
Case 2
Most of the photos in the "All about seeds" section are not seeds.
In the "Nonflowering plants" section spores are said to be seed-like. I would object to this characterization on many grounds. The picture and description further confuse spores with sporangia (or clumps of sporangia shown on the fern called sori).
"8. The seed leaves--called the cotyledons--emerge." This is true of beans but not of peas or corn, whose cotyledons remain in the seed coat and underground.
Case 4
"Frankenstein was created from different parts." The monster was not named Frankenstein in Mary Shelley's story.
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