Videos

Chris Martine has been generating educational YouTube content since 2008, most of it as part of the “Plants are Cool, Too!” (PACT) project co-produced with Paul Frederick and Tim Kramer. The first PACT episode was posted in 2011 thanks to funding from the Botanical Society of America, with subsequent episodes funded through grants and by the institutions of the scientists featured in the videos. The goal has been the same from the beginning: to put a spotlight on awesome plants and the cool people who study them. The videos have been viewed on YouTube more than 200,000 times; and PACT has been used in hundreds of classrooms (both K-12 and at colleges/universities) as well as in museums and other science-based educational settings. Interested in using them for teaching? We’ve indexed them by subject below.

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  • Undead zombie flowers of Skunk Cabbage

    Undead zombie flowers of Skunk Cabbage

    Smelling like a dead animal (or a zombie?) and having thermogenesis works out well for the plant known as skunk cabbage; and having this plant around works out well for our wetlands. 

  • Desert Blooms and Marathon Moths

    Desert Blooms and Marathon Moths

    Giant hawk moths fly for miles each night in search of flower nectar -- and are thus critically important as pollinators of desert wildflowers. Plant romance by the light of the full moon at New Mexico's White Sands National Monument. 

  • Team Schiedea (How to save a species from going EXTINCT)

    Team Schiedea (How to save a species from going EXTINCT)

    Highlighting one of the coolest and most ambitious projects in the history of rare species conservation, this episode takes us to Kaua’i, Hawai’i, where a group of passionate plant people are working to save some of the rarest plants on the archipelago — and tell us why we need a new generation of biodiversity lovers to help battle the extinction crisis.