Customer Reviews

Private Life of Plants 1: Branching Out [VHS]

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For those of you in school taking horticultural courses, an avid gardener, or just someone interested in plants...this is the perfect video to purchase. Why are plants the way they are? How do they reproduce, and how did some of them end up in such a hostile, desert climate with nothing else around? A very informative and interesting approach to these answers, filled with many more. David Attenborough has the ability to take something so complex, and explain it in the simplest terms that we all can relate to. I highly recommend this.

David Attenborough's videos on The Private Life of Plants are captivating, stimulating, and fabulously practical as scientific teaching tools. His "on-site" filming is technologically superior. While he demonstrates mastery of every subject, viewers feel as if they are experiencing every part of the world (and the world of plants) with David. You are there with him when he crouches down close to the ground to look at the anatomy of a tiny plant in the arctic tundra. You are there while he wades through swamps in the everglades. You are there when he is lifted to the top of a deciduous tree by a fire engine. The photography and sound keeps viewers at apt attention, while David's words are simple enough for any lay listener. Several subjects regarding plant life are addressed, such as symbiotic relationships, seed dispersal, and herbivore defense. Because David is on site and every aspect of the plant topic is filmed, you receive a "hands-on" experience of each topic. The visuals and sounds make it difficult to forget the information you have heard. They are at an economical price and worthwhile for highschool and college-level sciences.

I use this in the biology course I teach. Would be so great if they made a DVD version. My students love it.