A girl (about 17 yrs) in my college class asked the teacher whether lettuce comes from a plant. Do you have any more disturbing stories than this?
2007-08-05 12:35:43 · 15 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Botany
High school student, upon seeing a wild carrot plant: "You mean carrots grow under the ground like that?"
It is disturbing when restoration work on rare native ecosystems is set back or even stopped because people think fire destroys wildflowers, that we should not cut down invasive trees, that prairies are "weed patches"--don't get me started!
2007-08-06 03:08:08 · answer #1 · answered by prairiedog 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
That's pretty disturbing. There's some questions asked recently in the Zoology section that are pretty disturbing as well.
Do (pick an animal) have sex?
Do (pick an animal) poop?
Do goats lay eggs?
What in the world is this?
A: A caterpillar
Can you name some animals without backbones
Various wrong answers: snakes, mammals
It's kind of pathetic, and maybe city folk feel that if they live in the city they have no use for the natural world. They have an oak tree in their yard but they don't know what it is. A robin hops by and they don't know what it is.
It's pathetic if you ask me. Perhaps more time in school should be devoted into learning basic local ecology.
2007-08-06 12:43:37 · answer #2 · answered by Strix 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Is she ignorant about plants or just plain stupid? I had a nephew tell me how the Apollo astronauts were anchored to the moon not by gravity, since he says the moon has no gravity, but by heavy boots! I am not quite sure how boots can he described as heavy in the absence of gravity, but he is also of college age and wants a science degree! Clearly not physics.
I have also been asked by an 18yo girl "do women have bowels?" She said she asked because she only ever heard of men getting bowel cancer.
As for plants, maybe it is just an ignorance about food by urban dwellers.
2007-08-05 19:43:07 · answer #3 · answered by undercover elephant 4 · 4⤊ 0⤋
I find it more disturbing that anyone should be so judgemental to critisise a student for asking a teacher a question about plants. At least they are interested enough to want to learn!
Plants have feelings too. Ever read the secret life of plants?
http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Life-Plants-Peter-Tompkins/dp/0060915870
I'm older now. I would have thought they were an idiot for having to ask the question back in my schooldays.
2007-08-07 07:40:55 · answer #4 · answered by Part Time Cynic 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What I find disturbing is there are just over roughly 1,700 critically endangered plants, over 8,000 total. About the same number of critically endangered animals. Yet if you ask them to name an endangered animal they can ace it, give you as many as you want, manatee, Siberian tiger, they can rattle of a dozen or more off the top of their heads without using a book or the Internet. Ask them to name ONE critically endangered plant. They won't know. It's not their fault. The media, the newspapers, they all focus on endangered animals. How many newspaper articles or shows on TV have you seen informing you of endangered plants? None?
2007-08-05 23:00:38 · answer #5 · answered by Professor Armitage 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Yes I looked out of my upstairs window to discover five children all under the age of 10 knocking bark off a tree with a hammer, I went over and explained to them the tree would die if they didnt stop, they had no idea the bark took water to the branches, when I showed them the sap and explained it was "tree blood" they were very sorry for what they had done, happily they hadnt gone all the way round and the tree is still living, but if I hadnt seen them it would be dead by now.
I cant beleive schools dont teach children nature studies these days, I knew about trees, bark, etc etc from the age of five, if they are not teaching these kids anything useful, what the hell are they teaching them?
2007-08-05 19:54:51 · answer #6 · answered by magpyre 5 · 4⤊ 1⤋
People are ignorant of a lot of things, not just plants. Some people just don't have a lot upstairs though, and others haven't gained common sense. Lets not be too hard on them!
2007-08-06 07:42:31 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I once knew a "man" who could not understand why his fish had died, we asked him if he had fed them and he replied yes still baffled we asked more until later we found out he had ran out of fish food and had been feeding them lettuce??????????? the guy still could not grip why they had died as he thought plants in the sea were green too they should like it. There are some freaky people out there be very carefull
2007-08-05 19:48:51 · answer #8 · answered by Paul W 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I remember years ago Breakfast Telly did an April fool and did article on pasta plants alot of people believed this!
2007-08-05 19:47:33 · answer #9 · answered by js 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I new a lady who was surprised when the herbs she was growing flowered.
The same lady had earlier complained about having to water them two or three times a day. It hadn't occurred to her to pot them up out of the tiny pots that she had bought them in.
I think the BBC's "spaghetti tree", April Fool stunt still has to be surpassed.
2007-08-05 19:44:25 · answer #10 · answered by bouncer bobtail 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋