BSA Seeks Editor for PLANT SCIENCE BULLETIN

PLANT SCIENCE BULLETIN needs a new editor to begin with Volume 46 (January 2000).

Are you interested in desktop publishing? Would you like to correspond with botanical colleagues in many disciplines about books, articles, and matters of interest to the BSA? Are you looking for a meaningful way to serve the Botanical Society of America? Need more information?

If your answer to ANY of these questions is yes, please communicate your interest to Dr. Allison Snow (Chair, PSB Editor Search Committee), Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, Ohio State University, 1735 Columbus, OH 43210-1293; telephone 614-292-3445, Email snow.1@osu.edu). Nominations are welcome any time and no later than October 1, 1999. The Search Committee will begin reviewing interested candidates during the summer of 1999. For a more complete description of this job, see our posting at http://www.botany.org/.

---

Conant Travel Awards

The Botanical Society of America, through the Conant Fund, has funds available for travel to the International Botanical Congress in St. Louis. Awards will be $400 or less. To be eligible for funds one must be: a member of BSA; attending IBC and presenting a paper or poster; and an undergraduate or graduate student, postdoctoral, or pre-tenure professional.

To apply, send the abstract of paper or poster and a one-page letter explaining the need for funds, and, if a student or postdoctoral, a short letter (one page) of support from your advisor to: Dan Crawford, Conant Award Committee, Department of EEOB, Ohio State University, 1735 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210-1293. e-mail crawford.13@osu.edu or fax 614-292-2030

Deadline is June 25, 1999

---

PLANT SCIENCE BULLETIN
Editorial Committee for Volume 45

Nickolas M. Waser (1999) Department of Biology University of California Riverside, CA 92521

P. Mick Richardson (2000) Missouri Botanical Garden P.O. Box 299 St. Louis, MO 63166

Vicki A. Funk (2001) Department of Botany Smithsonian Institution Washington, D.C. 20560

Ann E. Antlfinger (2002) Biology Department University of Nebraska - Omaha Omaha NE 68182

Norman C. Ellstrand (2003) Department of Botany and Plant Science University of California Riverside, CA 92521-0124

The only education symposium at the International Botanical Congress has been organized by the Botanical Society! The AIBS and Benjamin/Cummings Publishers are co-sponsors. David Kramer, Chair of the BSA Education Committee, and a group of BSA members developed the theme and tapped the presenters. Please plan to attend this symposium at IBC.

ABSTRACT: The Botanical Society of America's plan for the future, "Botany for the Next Millennium," is a "framework for identifying research and educational goals, priorities, and opportunities in the botanical sciences." Botanists are challenged to examine the place of plant biology in undergraduate education, especially to reassert the importance of plants as evolved and evolving living organisms fundamentally important in all of the world's ecosystems. We are challenged not just to examine course content but also to utilize new pedagogical technologies that prove to be effective for the learner. Botanists are also challenged to become involved in K- 12 curriculum design so that young students will gain an appreciation of plants and knowledge of plant biology that will adequately prepare them for their university studies. This symposium focuses on both aspects of botanical literacy: What should students learn about plants? and What are some of the most effective ways to learn about plants? Special emphasis is given to the promise of new instructional technologies including the World Wide Web. An international panel of presenters will share their views and experiences and lead us in a discussion of these issues.

Speakers (in order of presentation):

1. Uno, Gordon E.
   Multidimensional scientific literacy
2. Wicks, Raymond E., Susan C. Gieseke, and Diana Robben
   Plant biology using DASH and FAST
3. Kimata, Mikio (Japan)
   Environmental education in Japan: A botanical perspective
4. Camara, Mark
   Promoting the teaching of evolution in Tennessee high schools: A workshop approach to educating and empowering teachers
5. Silvester, Warwick (New Zealand)
   Computer based teaching of structure: A plant physiologist's approach
6. Buckley, Donald
   On the threshold of a new millennium: Advanced educational technology to foster transition to the learning paradigm in biology
7. Campbell, Neil
   Leveraging biology's popularity to promote botanical literacy

The Botanical Society of America's site was inaugurated by Rick Falk in late 1995 on his server at the University of California Davis with a small collection of pages. During the last two years, Wadsworth Publishing has provided us with a free server with their parent company International Thomson Publishing <http://www.botany.org/> and in that time, it has flourished. From March 1997 to the end of April, over 331,000 hits have been recorded at the BSA site. From 1997 through 1998, the number of visitors tripled, and this year over 1/4 million "hits" are expected. The highest month so far was March 1999, with 23,551 hits (logons from 6030 unique hosts), representing 918.8 requests per day (38.3 requests/hour) from 64 foreign countries. The highest daily usage was July 28, 1997 when the site was featured as a site-of-the-day by Yahoo!!, receiving 3,966 hits on that day. The second highest was March 18, 1999 with 1,553.

Last year there were visits from 98 countries outside the U.S. Here is an alphabetical list of the countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Bermuda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, Former USSR, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guyana, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldavia, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Polynesia (French), Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Venezuela, Virgin Islands (USA), and Yugoslavia.

Among the different areas of the web site, the most popular sites are the American Journal of Botany abstracts from 1997 (10.8% of hits) and 1998 (30% of hits). The Plant Science Bulletin receives about 15% of the hits, with Botany in the Next Millennium, WWW Botany Links and Careers in Botany each receiving under 5% of the hits. The Home Page has received between 16 and 17% of the hits in 1999, indicating that over 80% of the users go beyond the first page to explore the site.

Another popular feature on the site is the online membership directory, which has replaced the print version for a large number of our members. The BSA is an excellent source for information about the Society and, for many people, closer than their bookshelf for finding a copy of the bylaws, a list of officers, members' e-mail addresses (mailing addresses, phone and FAX numbers and sectional affiliations!), membership forms and online brochures.

The American Journal of Botany Online site at <http://www.amjbot.org/> opened on January 15, 1999 with full text issues from September through the current in both reprint (PDF) and hyper linked (HTML) formats.

Since that time, there have been an average of nearly 14,000 hits and from 200 million to a half a billion bytes transferred EACH WEEK! Logins from over 70 foreign countries have been recorded at the site since its inauguration with the site literally being visited around the clock.

The high degree of international interest in the site was recently driven home to me when the number of daily "hits" on the two sites dropped below half of the usual amount on Easter weekend. 'ne site received less than a usual Sunday from Easter Friday through the end of Easter Monday, which are celebrated internationally as holidays, but less frequently in the U.S. Feel free to visit anytime ... we are open 7/24!

- Scott Russell, Webmaster and Chair, Web Page Committee Electronic Publication Editor, American Journal of Botany Online

The following individuals received a Certificate of Special Achievement as Young Botanists:

Ingrid Anderson	Carleton College
Keith Bowman	Connecticut College
Adrienne Bryan	Mount Olive College
Joseph Chang	University of California Los Angeles
Jason Fischbach	Carleton College
Perry Hendrix	Miami University
Jamie Horvath	Miami University
Melinda Klein	University of California Davis
James Lindenberger	University of Colorado at Denver
Leah Mahan	California State University, Chico
Naomi Nakayama	University of California Davis
Kara Shockey	Miami University
Renee Spenst	Salisbury State University
Carey Sydney	Carleton College
Sean Weise	Miami University
Mika Yoshida	University of California Los Angeles

The following individuals received a Certificate of Recognition from the Young Botanists Program: