What have we learned?

When looking back at the Covid-19 pandemic in years to come, our children and grandchildren are likely to ask why we didn’t see it coming. In fact, epidemiologists did see it coming, and contingency plans were in place (not for this pandemic, but for a pandemic) in many countries around the world.

However, even with such plans, it can be hard for governments to act proactively when the threat of a pandemic does not appear immediate. Even after the onset of the pandemic, it is a big step to impose restrictions on people’s lives, when its impact is only just being felt. When the pandemic began, it took modelling and data to show our politicians the truly catastrophic consequences of inaction. As biology educators, this should make us realise just how important it is to prepare our own students for a data-driven era of life science. It is striking that one of the articles in this issue, accepted for publication before the pandemic in September 2019, had already recognised this, particularly in relation to real-world disease.

Our children may also ask us the same question about climate change, loss of biodiversity, destruction of habitats (the list goes on). Why didn’t we act sooner? The impact of the pandemic is right in front of us; when the full impacts of climate change are in front of us, it will be too late. Ironically, many of the adaptations we have made to Covid-19 are also important in relation to climate change. For example, employers have realised that their employees don’t need to drive to work or fly to meetings: they can work from home. Levels of pollution and emissions of greenhouse gases have both fallen, and many employers are unlikely to return to the way things were.

Something else has happened too. Having been restricted to our homes for long periods of time, any time in the outdoors, in contact with ‘nature’, has become precious. Many are suddenly noticing the living things with whom we share our ecosystems. One of the articles in this issue explores how urban middle-school students notice the trees around them. Even in the largest of cities, plants are probably the most common living organisms we see, and yet plant blindness and children’s recognition of plants as living things remains an important focus, also discussed in this issue.

Plants are involved in creating the atmosphere we breathe, the food we eat, the fuels we use, the medicines we take, and the clothes we wear. Plant scientists are responsible for ensuring that food and fuel supplies are sustainable, for protecting biodiversity, and for providing insight into some of the impacts of climate change. Because of this, it is essential that we educate our young people to recognise plants, to realise their importance, and even to aspire to become plant scientists. Plants can provide contexts for students to explore all the big ideas in biology (Reiss and Winterbottom 2021). Two articles in this issue make clear how teachers’ pedagogical and content knowledge is important to help students to learn through and about plants, and to bring plant science to life.

Make no mistake, the pandemic is still here, continuing to inflict a dreadful toll across the world. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we can change our lifestyles, and have an impact by so doing. We have done it for the pandemic; now let’s focus on educating our young people to notice, to care about, to value and to protect the world around them. If we don’t, the consequences of the pandemic will pale into insignificance compared to the consequences of climate change.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).