A survey of precollege biology education materials revealed that fundamental plant mineral nutrition concepts typically received minimal coverage. The information provided was also often outdated and contained misconception's or errors, e.g. a description of plant hydrogen deficiency symptoms, a statement that plants absorb nitrogen only as nitrate, and a complete nutrient solution recipe with boron at a toxic 15 mg/liter. Despite these problems, plant mineral nutrition could and should become an essential part of precollege curricula because of its relevance to everyday life, e.g. fertilizer use in home gardening and commercial agriculture; the public fascination with hydroponics, e.g. Walt Disney World EPCOT Center's Land exhibit; the excellent hands-on aspects of plant solution culture in the classroom; and the interdisciplinary nature of plant mineral nutrition, which links biology, chemistry, math, history and agriculture. Plant mineral nutritionists could play an important role in precollege education by assisting precollege teachers with classroom solution culture on a one-to-one basis, providing preservice and inservice workshops on solution culture and developing accurate plant mineral nutrition teaching materials, especially simple and inexpensive hands-on classroom activities.
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