Baum
In Professor David Baum's Botany 130: General Botany course, students learn about the basic biology of plants.
Baum isn't afraid to use creative ways to impart that knowledge, either.
When Baum teaches the course, he asks students to write and record a song describing the life-cycle of a moss, lycophyte, fern, conifer or angiosperm for extra credit. Students can work alone or in groups of up to three and can use a popular or traditional tune (and less musically-inclined students can create a board game encapsulating the life-cycle of a plant).
The class then votes for the winner; earlier this week students Ben Trapp, Brandi Wiedmeyer and Thomas Sawicki took home top honors with a parody of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" about conifers. Perhaps the closing falsetto put them over the top.
To listen to the winning song, click play on the widget below.
The lyrics of the winning song:
Rockin’ around the conifer tree, an alternation of generations
Two cones that you can see, one’s a girl and one's a boy
Rockin’ around the conifer tree, being diploid is the key
Microspores and megaspores divide through meiosis
The microspores make the pollen gra-ai-ai-ains
And the girl cones make the eggs inside the archegonia-a-a
Rockin' around the conifer tree, the pollens fallin’ down
Lookin’ for the ovule, makin' the pollen tube
(Cue saxophone solo)
There will be a sperm swimming through to the egg
Then you get a zygote turn into an embryo-o-o-o-o
Rockin' around the conifer tree, the mature seed is released
When the conditions are right, the seed just might, grow into a sporophyte!