Many institutions offer short seminars or courses focused on stimulating student engagement in areas outside of their major, but the effectiveness of these courses is rarely evaluated. We developed a "First Year Odyssey" course aimed at increasing interest in plants and combating "Plant Blindness," the inability to see or notice the plants in one's own environment. The course used a variety of creative activities, group discussions, and field trips to expose students to the multitude of ways plants are highly adapted to the challenges their environments present. We found that student awareness of and interest in plants increased significantly after taking our course, and that field trips and learning activities were the most common reasons given for this increase.
