Since its creation in 2005, the PlantingScience program has worked with teachers and administrators to ensure that the program is a good fit for their class communities, aligned with the school and district's available resources and curricular objectives.

Some key points to note about PlantingScience:

• PlantingScience is an educational program created by the Botanical Society of America in 2005 to facilitate exposure of middle and high school students to plant science professionals and careers.  Today its success is due to supportive partnerships with the BSA and other plant-focused professional societies, industry leaders, and the National Science Foundation.
   
• Participating in PlantingScience is free.  PlantingScience is supported by grant funding and partnerships, and there are no cost to schools, teachers, or students who wish to participate.  In some cases, we also send supplies to the teacher to facilitate the students' explorations in the classroom. 
   
• PlantingScience scientist mentors are real plant science research professionals from all over the world.  They willingly donate their time and expertise to support the program and engage with students about science practices, science careers, and plant sciences in general.  PlantingScience offers them the opportunity to develop science communication and mentoring skills
   
• PlantingScience's platform is designed to safely facilitate mentorship between real plant scientists and groups of students in classrooms.  Our program is designed to comply with COPPA and FERPA in the following ways:
   
  • All students under the age of 13 are required to obtain permission to participate from their parent or legal guardian before they can log into the platform.  Students whose guardians deny consent can still participate in classroom activities as usual; they simply do not log into the platform to interact directly with mentors.
     
  • All communication takes place through PlantingScience's platform and is visible to the teacher.  The site makes no provision for private communication of any kind.
     
  • Students are assigned an anonymous login and use only their first names or nicknames on the website.  Their school email address is not used on the website in any way.
     
  • Media submitted (photos, documents, presentations, etc.) does not contain student names or email addresses.  Submitting media is optional.
    
     
• PlantingScience's resources are designed to be flexible and to address topics and practices prioritized in state science standards.  In addition to supporting plant-appropriate science concepts, the guided-inquiry model upon which our themes are designed supports science skills practice. They can be used as stand-alone units or incorporated into your existing science curriculum.

All participating schools are asked to complete a one-time school authorization form before their classes can participate:

School Administrator Authorization Form

Please direct any questions or concerns you have to the PlantingScience team at psteam@plantingscience.org