Heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic there has been a global increase in urban greenspace appreciation. Indoor plants are equally important for improving mental health and air quality but despite evolving in humid (sub)tropical environments with aerial root types, planting systems ignore aerial resource supply. This study directly compared nutrient uptake preferences of aerial and soil-formed roots of three common houseplant species under high and ambient relative humidities. Growth and physiology parameters were measured weekly for Anthurium andreanum, Epipremnum aureum and Philodendron scandens grown in custom made growth chambers. Both aerial and soil-formed roots were then fed mixtures of nitrate, ammonium and glycine, with one source labelled with 15N to determine uptake rates and maximum capacities. Aerial roots were consistently better at nitrogen uptake than soil roots but no species, root type or humidity condition showed a preference for a particular nitrogen source. All three species grew more in high humidity, with aerial roots demonstrating the greatest biomass increase. Higher humidities for indoor niches, together with fertiliser applications to aerial roots will support indoor plant growth, creating lush calming indoor environments for people inhabitants.

The modern workplace requires teamwork bridging distances, time-zones and cultures using virtual collaboration platforms. As such teamwork is a key employability skill for our graduates, and yet we rarely explicitly teach team skills or how to navigate and collaborate in a virtual environment. Here we demonstrate that integrating in-person (synchronous) and online (synchronous and asynchronous) learning environments can prove an extremely resilient teaching method that allowed continuity during COVID-19 lockdown, while providing them with these essential skills. Students were given a semester long documentary video team assignment supported by regular compulsory team training sessions and using the Microsoft Teams online collaboration platform. At the end of semester, the 24 students in the class were sent a survey with questions relating to their perspectives of teamwork in general, the team training sessions and online platform and the impact of COVID-19. Of the 12 respondents only 4 reported negative attitudes to teamwork in general and learning and shared workload were the most reported benefits. Implementing explicit (and compulsory) team training sessions throughout semester were valued by the students for reasons ranging from the explicit intention of each task (team establishment and planning, negotiation, reflection of team behaviours, negotiating team member contributions) to the more general appreciation that regular compulsory sessions ensured the teams met frequently. It was particularly positive that every student reported that this team experience was better than their previous team experiences, and this in spite of the COVID-19 lockdown. Included with this manuscript are all the learning materials provided to the students and a few key lessons we learnt along the way.