Online Botany Lecture & Laboratory

This course was developed by Ben Montgomery and has since been added to and improved by Kate Farrah. We are both at University of South Carolina Upstate. You may use elements from this course for your instruction, but you may not incorporate these materials into published materials outside of your institution (e.g. lab manuals used outside of your own university) without prior written permission. Please let us know if you use these materials for purposes of our internal documentation: bmontgomery@uscupstate.edu / kfarrah@uscupstate.edu .

See links for the syllabus, schedule, supplies list, and laboratory activities on the left menu or the drop-down menu at the top. Activities are organized by the week in which we teach them, and some activities span multiple weeks.

To navigate use the click on the "hamburger" navigation menu in the top left corner, then click on the down arrows to expand hidden menus. Or navigate using the links below...

Links to sub-menus

• • Lecture Syllabus

  • Lecture Schedule

  • Narrated Lectures (available on YouTube, page in progress)

  • Laboratory Syllabus

  • Laboratory Schedule

  • Plant Sciences Bulletin article

List of Laboratory Activities and Lab Week(s) in which they are described:

Orientation activities: practice importing images into Padlet and Blackboard

• • Week 1: Orientation activities

Grow terrariums in sun and shadier locations

• • Week 2: Terrariums part 1

  • Week 7: Terrariums part 2 (scroll down on link)

  • Week 15: Terrariums part 3

Graft Coleus & Make a Coleus cutting

• • Week 2: Situate Coleus in window or under lamp (brief instructions)

  • Week 10: Graft Coleus and make a Coleus cutting

  • Week 14: Coleus final update (brief assignment description)

Fern life cycle - germinate spores, grow gametophye and sporophyte

• • Week 2: Situate fern dish in window or under lamp (brief instructions)

  • Week 4: Fern journal (part 1)

  • Week 8: Water fern dishes

  • Week 11: Update fern journal

  • Week 15: Final fern journal update

Dichotomous keys & identification of winter twigs with a key

• • Week 3: Dichotomous keys & winter twigs

Tree rings / dendochronology

• Week 4: Dendochronology (exercise based on Flash, current fuctionality needs to be checked)

Photo documentation of leaf traits & other vegatative traits

• Week 5: Examples of leaves & vegetative traits / poisonous plants

Gymnosperm Identification

• Week 6: Gymnosperms

Flower dissections

• Week 7: Flowers and Terrariums

Human nutrition

• Week 8: Human nutrition

Iodine test for starch / hypothesis testing

• Week 8: Iodine test for starch / hypothesis testing

Phenology / Effects of climate on Phenology

• Week 11:Phenology

DNA extraction / polyploidy / hypothesis testing

• Week 12 DNA extraction

Community engagement / volunteer opportunity / digital herbaria

• Week 13: Community / volunteer activity

Radish genetics

• Weeks 11, 12, 13, 14

• Week 11: Radish genetics, part 1

• Week 12: Radish genetics, part 2

• Week 13: Radish genetics, part 3

• Week 14: Radish genetics, part 4

Cooling power of shade trees

• Week 15

• Link to Lecture Schedule

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