As one of the dual wings of innovative development, science popularization is a crucial means of enhancing national scientific literacy. Universities, as the main platforms for disseminating knowledge and nurturing talent, also bear the social responsibility of promoting science popularization. In biology, conducting science education and guiding students to extract biological knowledge from their courses to create popular science content is of great significance in advancing public science literacy. This article takes a university botany course as an example to illustrate how botany courses can integrate popular science education through course knowledge, practical activities, research outcomes, and real-life applications. By employing the “2W1H” approach (What, Why, and How), the paper guides students in creating popular science. This not only cultivates students’ comprehensive and innovative abilities but also disseminates biological knowledge, offering a valuable reference for the cultivation of popular science talents in the context of promoting science literacy for all.

Recombination, linkage and crossover of chromosomes are the key and difficult points in genetics teaching. For students’ comprehensively understanding these concepts in teaching, we designed a new genetic experiment named ‘Gene mapping using DNA molecular markers’ based on the principle of the map-based cloning method, using our previous studies on cloning of a rice lesion-mimic phenotype regulating gene SPOTTED LEAF 5 (SPL5) as an example. In this experiment, students are instructed to perform the linkage analysis, genetically map the spl5 mutation and align a genetic map by using an F₂ population generated by a cross between spl5 and wild-type plants and polymorphic molecu- lar markers. This teaching experiment can not only effectively promote students' understanding of the three Laws of genetics, but also be helpful to broaden their vision and improve their ability to solve problems and work in a team.