botanydepot
Chris MartineCategory: college level
So much of documentation of biodiversity and educational projects today include digital images, but how do you take good photos of plants and features associated with plants (such…
Conservation takes partnership. Many off-roaders think conservationists are all “tree-huggers”… and many conservationists think off-roaders are all “tree-killers.” But somewhere in between there is a sweet spot where…
A team of biologists drops off a cliff to learn more about one rare plant, but ends up discovering something completely unexpected with the help of science Twitter….
Key concept: Even plants we use in gardens can be rare in nature – and student Cheyenne Moore is doing her best to help protect one of the…
Behind-the-scenes view of the plant conservation pipeline at the National Tropical Botanical Garden on Kaua’i, where plant people are working every day to protect the plants of Hawai’i…
Lena Struwe’s lab group at Rutgers University has developed several resources about common weeds of northeastern North America and these are shared with the public here. They were…
In this assignment developed for beginning college level students by Lena Struwe at Rutgers University, the concepts of natural and artificial selection, as well as Lamarckian evolution, is…
In this activity college students go outside and find ten street trees near their home or school, photograph them, identify them to species, and map them on a…
What kind of and how much botanical diversity can you find in the products in a a home, or just in a bathroom, freezer, fridge, or pantry? Go…
This iNaturalist plant observation assignment for college students was developed by Aaron Liston from Oregon State University. It was designed to replace a traditional collection assignment. The students…
Here is an alternative bingo sheet to the previously posted iNaturalist Species Bingo Project. I will post other species bingo sheets in this blog post when they are…
This interactive timeline marking major events in the history and evolution of food, crops, migration of food, agriculture and cooking methods were created in 2012 by myself (Lena…
This is an assignment I use in my Plant Diversity and Evolution class the week before they start their iNaturalist project. The students learn how to take great…
University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Dept of Botany have many teaching images available on their Virtual Foliage homepage. They are divided up in three themed sets (linked below with an…
The online college class Intro to Alaska Flora from University of Alaska Fairbanks includes fantastic components developed by botany professor Stefanie Ickert-Bond. These online resources are available for…
This activity uses the citizen science tool iNaturalist for a project for high school and college students that focus on species discovery and identification. Observations are uploaded to…
These images of 21 hypothetical plants were created by Lynn Clark (Iowa State University) and Brandon Holt and can be used in a variety of exercises. Lynn Clark…
Looking for a non-technical beginners and intermediate users manual in plant nomenclature that explains scientific names, common names, cultivated and trade names, and what changes in plant classifications…
In identification keys and species descriptions around the world, measurements are usually in the metric system, the universal system for scientific measurements. US students often do not have…
Emergency Room (ER) toxic plant role play for Botany classes Developed by Dr. Lena Struwe (lena.struwe@rutgers.edu) This is the activity I presented at the Botany 2018 meeting as…
This innovative book and its 52 playing cards with flowers and families on them comes with instructions for 5 different card games to enhance learning of major family…
The new 6th edition of this well-known book by Thomas Elpel follows the APG system (a phylogenetic classification system now used worldwide) and provides easy to access information…
Key concept: Understanding and remembering order of events and time line for Earth’s geological and biological history. This is the handout for an exercise I do in my…
Get your students to run around outside the classroom and dig through the weeds in the lawns to find examples of obtuse, spinose, calyx, capsule, stamen, trichome, and…
Weeds are everywhere and people like to taste new things, so why not combine the two? Here is an article that explains how we did it at Rutgers…
Key concept: Engaging students in the discovering of biodiversity on a campus of a school or university can turn into a solid and valuable research project for years…
Want to travel back in botanical history with watercolor or coloring pens? Here are some illustrious handouts for students in many subjects (medicine, gardening, pharmacology, botany, history…), as…
College-level course module exploring the diversity of plant species available for sale at a local grocery store. Survey data are analyzed by calculating measures of species richness and…
Key concept: How pitcher plants lure, trap, and digest insect prey… with the help of millions of mystery microbes. Guest expert for this episode of “Plants are Cool,…
Key concept: Most plant fossils are impressions, but the ones in Clarkia, Idaho are actual leaves encased in rock for the last 15 millions years… and we might…