Fall 2010 Botany 105 Laboratory Course Syllabus

Class Schedule

You can find the class schedule online at:

https://sites.google.com/site/introductoryethnobotany/Home/bot-105-fall-2010-ddutra-syllabus/summer-s-lab

Class Preparation and Participation (70% of your grade)

-Preparation: Read and critically think about assigned articles, research topics that are highlighted on the schedule, complete assigned activities before class.

-Participation: Be present at each lab meeting, bring items and other assignments to class, discuss readings and observations in class and participate on hands-on activities.

-There are no make-ups for any class assignments and attendance is mandatory.

Final Lab Project (30% of your grade)

Guidelines and Options:

At the end of the semester, you will be required to orally present to the class about an ethnobotanical project you worked on over the course of the semester. Choose something you find fun and interesting and would like to know more about! You must demonstrate to us that you learned something new and produced a tangible product. You can use a powerpoint presentation, show-and-tell style, hands-on demonstration/tasting, narrated/introduced viewing of a video or website you made, or other creative method of presenting. This project is worth 30% of your lab grade, comprised of 150 points as follows:

10 pts topic sentence due in lab: September 29

40 pts proposal outline due in lab: October 27

100 pts final presentation and paper. Paper due in lab: November 24. Give oral presentation to the class December 1, or December 8.

Your final grade will be based on several criteria, including:

1) Your ability to communicate the ethnobotanical relevance of your project;

2) The amount of effort you seem to have put into your project (in general I would recommend putting in a few hrs/week or at least 30 hours total);

3) Your ability to answer questions about your project and to demonstrate that you learned something new by doing the project;

4) Peer review (your classmates will anonymously critique your work);

5) Turned in complete and on-time proposal sentence, proposal outline with citations, and 3 pg minimum typed double-spaced paper + appropriately formatted bibliography with at least 10 sources (mix of interviews, journal articles, and books)

You have several options for the type of project you can conduct. Be creative, have fun, learn something new and interesting!:

Option 1. Creative project

Proposed by the student and approved by the Lab Instructor, e.g. a short film, a research or volunteer project, a gardening project, a composting project, an experiment, etc.

Option 2. Artifact Project

Produce an artifact based upon plant materials and prepare a short written report on how the artifact is made and for what it is used.

Option 3. Web Pages/Website

Prepare a set of web pages as three plant profiles with the following structure:

1. Cover page with photo or drawing of each plant, Latin name of plant, name of author of these pages and links to the pages below.
2. Related information links. Includes links to as many other pages as possible that discuss the same plant. These should be sorted into themes.
3. Plant description. Copy from flora, etc. in quotes and cite references.
4. Ethnobotany. Discussion of human interactions with each plant. List by culture and cite references for ALL statements.
5. Biogeography. Origin of each plant, history of movement and current distribution.

If you have a disability for which you need accommodations, please contact me or contact the KOKUA program on campus (808-956-7511).