​The move to online and distance education has created an urgent need for teaching tools. Try adapting existing activities for online classes.  Search YouTube for video demonstrations and virtual tours – many farms, museums and parks are now posting videos for the public. Ask students to search for plants and plant health problems in their own locales. With some creativity and resourcefulness, you can still provide meaningful learning experiences.

The following websites are good sources of ideas and supporting materials.

APS Education Center

• ​Case Studies​
  Class discussions centered on real world disease problems; encourages student thinking and engagement
   
  
• Backyard Plant Pathology
  
• Plants Get Sick Too! Plant Diseases Idea Starter[K-12]
  
• A smarter hand lens -- Macro lens attachment for your smart device
• Demonstration of plant pathogen dispersal without using live plants or pathogens
  
• Nature Scavenger Hunts, Backyard Bug ​Hunts. An internet search will yield several scavenger hunt activities; you can also adapt or create scavenger hunts to find plants, insects and plant health issues in your area.
  

Other Resources

• APS Plantopia Podcasts
  Explore the world of plant health with plant pathologists—people on a mission to protect plants and our food supply.
  
• APS Youtube Channel​
  Learn more about your favorite plants and get new and exciting updates from our youtube channel!
• Forest Health Detectives
  T.L. Bal. 2014.  Forest Health Detectives. The American Biology Teacher, 76:8, October 2014; (pp. 536-541) DOI: 10.1525/abt.2014.76.8.7.  Students search for common tree issues.  Lesson plan with diagrams and photos; can be adapted for different grade levels.
  
• National Tree Benefit Calculator
  Collect and input simple tree information to learn about the multiple benefits that trees provide, such as energy conservation and air quality.
  
• iNaturalist.org
  Post photographs of living organisms in your area, connect with others to identify and learn more about the organisms.  iNaturalist apps can be downloaded on a phone or computer.
  
• Online Nematode Key
  
• How Mushrooms Changed the World
  Presentation by David Hibbett from Clark University + question sheet, Mycological Society of America
  
• Epidemiology
  Webidemics.com
  A web-based interactive utility to visualize the spread of plant diseases and the effects of control strategies from the University of Cambridge Epidemiology and Modelling group.
  

​Laboratory Demonstrations 

With the cancellation of many in-person lab classes, some instructors are recording videos of lab demonstrations. Assignments can be set up to have student interpret and evaluate results, images and data sets. You may not even have to create videos - try searching YouTube to see if there are existing videos you can use. Even sites such as the Khan Academy have good biology-related resources.​

APS Education Center

• Creating an active learning environment in the laboratory with prepared slides.
  
• Demonstration of plant pathogen dispersal without using live plants or pathogens.​
  

​​Other Resources