Sex and the C-fern: not just another life cycle

W e recently conducted an informal survey of 222 students in various biology classes at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. All were biology majors, ranging from freshmen to seniors, and all had been taught about the fern life cycle at some point in their academic careers. We asked the following question: "If you have ever been taught anything about ferns, please indicate two or three things that distinguish them from other plants." Forty-two percent of the respondents indicated that they remembered little or nothing about ferns, 40% said that ferns reproduce by spores, and 21% remembered something distinctive about ferns: their fronds (leaves) or the fact that they form fiddleheads. Fewer than 10% mentioned anything about freeliving haploid gametophytes, diploid vascular sporophytes, swimming sperm, or alternation of generations. The results, although perhaps not representative of all institutions or settings, were not surprising. This level of understanding is what one might expect from someone with only a passing interest in ferns and no formal education about them. Did their biology teachers fail in their attempts to educate these students? Did they teach them the wrong thing? Does anyone really need to know anything about ferns anyway? It is not surprising that students have such a minimal level of knowledge and understanding, considering that most students do not find plants in general very interesting. In many students' eyes, plants simply do not do as much as other, more familiar organisms or those that "move around and do things." Lack