João Felipe Toni

My name is João Felipe Toni. I am a biologist and educator with a Master’s degree in Botany and Ecology from the University of Basel and I am a researcher in the field of Didactics of Biology at the Friederich-Schiller-University in Jena (DE). I have been a visiting researcher at the Nature Institute (USA) and the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, Scotland. My main research interests are Goethe’s morphology and Steiner’s epistemology applied to the study of metamorphosis and evolution of flowering plants; and botanical education in Waldorf schools and academia. I am currently a research associate at the Natural Science Section at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, a member of the FLO-RE-S International Network on Floral Morphology and a science and biology teacher at the Rudolf Steiner Zurich Oberland School in Wetzikon, Switzerland.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe came to Weimar in 1775. After moving into his new domicile at the gates of the city in the Ilm-Aue, he devoted himself with growing intensity to garden design and botany. A few years later, when he moved into a prestigious residence on Weimar’s Frauenplan, another garden plot came into his possession. Both gardens, together with the botanical garden of the University of Jena, provided illustrative material for his botanical research on living plants. The aim of my PhD project is to re-examine Goethe’s dynamic view of the diversity of plants in the context of the didactics of botany and environmental education. How can the history and philosophy of science be used in science teaching? This will be tested within the framework of the project as well as the planning and creation of a Goethean garden as a didactic implementation of the topic “Metamorphosis of Plants”. High school students can use both visual thinking and manual work to learn about topics such as Goethean floral morphology and ecology, evolution of plant development (Evo-Devo), plant systematics, taxonomy, and botanical illustration. In addition, the project aims to generate experience in school-community interaction with science in general and Goethe’s morphological approach in particular.

“We want to regard this institution as a harbinger of peace and look forward to it for the best”.
— Goethe in a letter to Batsch on the occasion of the founding of the Botanical Garden of Jena.