Transcript title

General Botany

Credits

4

Grading mode

Standard letter grades

Total contact hours

60

Lecture hours

30

Lab hours

30

Recommended preparation

At least one previous biology course (BI 101, 102, 103).

Course Description

Studies plant anatomy, human interactions with plants, and especially plant taxonomy within an evolutionary framework. Focuses on flowering plant families common in Central Oregon and identification using taxonomic keys.

Course learning outcomes

1. Identify and communicate, using technical botanical terminology, the vegetative and floral characteristics important for describing and classifying plants.
2. Employ, individually and collaboratively, established taxonomical schemes, such as dichotomous key, to identify plants.
3. Use appropriate techniques and ethics to collect local botanical specimens for study.
4. Apply human historical and cultural connections with plants to nutritional, medicinal, and aesthetic human needs and communicate these ideas orally, visually, and in writing.
5. Recognize major concepts in botany and differentiate evidence-based scientific botanical knowledge from non-scientific botanical claims.

Content outline

1. Botanical nomenclature
2. Major plant groups: mosses, ferns, conifers, and flowering plants
3. Vegetative, floral, and fruit anatomy
4. Monocots compared to dicots
5. Dichotomous keys
6. Identification of unknown plants
7. Survey of common plant families in Central Oregon
8. Plant specimen collecting and herbarium techniques
9. Characteristics of common plant families
10. Plant co-evolution with animals: pollination and seed dispersal
11. Evolutionary origin of plants
12. Ethnobotany
13. Economic botany

Required materials

Course may require textbook, coursepack, hand lens, plant press.

General education/Related instruction lists

• Science Lab