With the mission of fostering talented graduates with innovative skills and knowledge, colleges and universities are the primary base for providing innovative educational models. The traditional high-education model in the field of plant science is not well suited for innovative student talent development due to its structural deficiencies such as obsolete teaching forms and contents, the dissociation between theoretical teaching and practice, non-standardized training processes, and irrational evaluation systems. As an important vehicle for promoting in depth teaching reform, subject teaching competitions exert a remarkable impact in stimulating students’ innovative potential and practicing their innovative skills at four levels: consciousness, thinking, spirit, and quality. This paper takes the undergraduate training program in College of Life Sciences in Zhejiang Normal University as an example to explore how to incorporate teaching competitions into the innovative talent training programs in plant science. Specific implementation strategies were proposed from multiple perspectives such as curriculum construction, management system, teaching staff, incentive and evaluation mechanisms. The effects of our college’s educational practice is summarized. This work provides a reference for the training of innovative student talents in plant science in similar institutions.

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.