<< Background >>„Plant illiteracy“ i.e. poor knowledge of plants (UNO, 2009) resulting from the phenomenon of „plant blindness“ (Wandersee & Schussler,1999), expressing human ignorance of plants, are significant problems in our society. Plant blindness is considered a „stumbling block“ to sustainable development (Amprazis & Papadopoulou, 2020). Harmful landscape management, owing to the low level of human knowledge of plants, leads to an increase in continental drought, increased global CO2 budget, soil erosion, increase in local temperatures, air and water pollution, and a shift towards an arid climate interrupted by torrential rains and climate extremes.Roots of plant blindness and illiteracy are initiated in school education. Plants are less attractive to the students than animals; learning botany is considered boring and difficult. Furthermore, several key topics like the role of transpiration in the air-conditioning function of vegetation, the role of vegetation in the water cycle in the landscape, or plant – atmosphere interactions are under-represented or omitted from science education. To ensure sustainable economy and environment for the future it is necessary to address plant blindness, to improve public plant literacy and to enhance the attractiveness of learning botany. For these reasons an innovation in botany education is necessary. This needs to start from the innovation of teachers’ training at universities. Such innovation must be based on implementation of new scientific findings of plants’ ecophysiological role by using innovative educational approaches.<< Objectives >>The overall goal of the project is to improve plant literacy of general public via a more efficient and attractive botany instruction at all school levels, which needs to be reached by educating the educators, i.e. innovative teachers‘ training. In the project EDUCATION FOR PLANT LITERACY teachers‘ educators, experts in the field of teaching methodology, and researchers in the field of plant ecophysiology from five European countries will join together and use their know–how to develop innovative pre/in-service teachers training activities focused on plants and the role of vegetation in landscape and regional climate. The target group of this project are pre- and in- service teachers of all school levels (primary as well as secondary school, natural science teachers at agrarian and environmental secondary schools and related fields, stakeholder in the field of education).The particular aim is to improve teachers’ Technological-Pedagogical-Content Knowledge on the role of plants in the landscape and the atmosphere. The project consortium aims to improve teachers “Content knowledge” via the implementation of new scientific findings on the role plants play in the landscape and the atmosphere into their education. Cutting edge scientific information will be incorporated using modern, student-centred approaches and teaching strategies to reach the pedagogical aspects of TPACK. Technological and especially digital skills of teachers will be improved via the use of modern and user-friendly digital measuring devices and work with digital data obtained. This way the project consortium aims to improve digital skills of project participants. The second important goal is to enhance teachers motivation for teaching the role plants play in our environment and encourage them to develop innovative practice of teaching botany in their schools.Further project goal is to develop teaching materials (a Handbook and set of teaching activities for different school levels) for teachers to use across Europe, and to help teachers cope with plant blindness and improve plant literacy in other European coutries. As the phenomenon of plant illiteracy is a global problem the project results are developed in English as we aim to spread the project results beyond Europe as well.<< Implementation >>Within the project, innovative teaching activities will be implemented into pre-service teachers training as well as into life-long courses for in-service teachers at participants’ universities. Modern student-centered approaches will be used to make teachers‘ education more attractive and to encourage innovative teaching of science. Special focus is paid to inquiry, project and garden-based education, to enhance attractiveness of learning botany and to improve students’ knowledge. These approaches will include hands-on students’ activities using modern measuring digital devices during field and laboratory practice, evaluation and interpretation of digital and remote sensing data. As digital-age teachers are supposed to be literate in online teaching, online activities are included as well. The quality of developed materials is ensured via piloting in practice, evaluating and redesigning. In the project frame 5 transnational project meetings and 4 international learning/teaching/training activities for staff training of participants institutions will be organized. Project activities lead to the development of four project results. In order to spread project results to broader audience 5 national multiplier events in partners’ countries and final international conference will be organized.<< Results >>In the frame of the project, four project results will be developed:1)Plant Literacy Teacher's Handbook (The handbook containing biological principles of the role plants play in our environment combined with modern teaching methodology to increase the attractiveness of learning botany and to improve students‘ achievement) 2)Developing Plant Literacy - Teaching activities for pre-service teachers' preparation(teaching material for practice teachers‘ training at higher education institutions) 3)Modern teaching on plants - Teaching activities for secondary school (teaching materials for teachers practice at lower and upper secondary schools) 4)Modern teaching on plants - Teaching activities for primary school (teaching material for teachers practice at primary schools) Developed teaching materials include videoshots documenting teaching activities. The project results are available online on project website as open source in five languages, EN, D, CZ, FI, NL, hence they can be used by general public.Other outcomes are:-Raised motivation of teachers in (at least) five European countries to innovate in teaching botany.-Increased self-confidence of pre/in-service teachers to use modern measuring devices in their teaching practice at schools-Improvement of digital skills for botany teaching-Improvement of online teaching skills-Improvement of plant literacy of general public in European countries via innovative botany education at schoolsImprovement of pre-service/in-service teachers self-confidence and self-efficacy when teaching about plants-