Instructor:	Susan Swensen, Biology Department
Email:	sswensen@ithaca.edu
Office Hours:	Mon 9-11 am; Tues 3-4 or by appt.
Office:	254 CNS
Campus Phone:	274-3511

Lecture Schedule  (PDF)

Textbook: There is no required textbook for this class, but you will be required to buy one book on your own that will be read as part of the class.  Other reading material will be made available to you on Blackboard.

                    Ominvore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan ISBN 978-0-14-303858-0 (Pbk)

The Course:

The goal of this course is to provide you with an appreciation for the important roles that plants play in our lives and the lives of people of other cultures and how to study cultural connections with plants.  Class time will include lectures, discussions, student-led discussions, student presentations, and videos.  My goal is to foster “community learning” where we are free to ask questions, state opinions, and have discussion without feeling inhibited by the course schedule.  Two “quests” (a quiz-test hybrid) will be given to assess learning during the semester.  The fourth hour of the course will consist of an independent research project with students working in pairs or small groups. 

Attendance & Participation Policy:

You are expected to attend all scheduled classes.  Your attendance will be monitored throughout the semester.  Unexcused absences will result in a 10 point deduction (up to 20 points).  Attendance and participation in discussions are an important part of this class and will thus constitute ~8% of your final grade.  If you will be absent for a class, please notify the instructor ahead of time.  It is your responsibility to obtain missed notes or to make up missed work or quests.

Grading:

Your final grade will be based on the following components.  Grades will be assigned according to the following scale A = 93-100,  A- = 90-92, B+ = 87-89, B = 83-86,  B- = 80-82,  C+  = 77-79,  C = 73-76,  C- = 70-72,  D+ = 67-69,  D = 63-66,  D- = 60-62,  F < 60.  There is no extra credit.

Academic Honesty:

All work in this class must be your own, unless stated otherwise.  Confirmed instances of academic misconduct will result in a zero for that test/assignment and referral to the school judiciary system. 

In a collaborative project, all students in a group may be held responsible for academic misconduct if they engage in plagiarism or are aware of plagiarism by others in their group and fail to report it. Students who participate in a collaborative project in which plagiarism has occurred will not be held accountable if they were not knowledgeable of the plagiarism.

Learning Goals:

   The following are list of things I hope you will learn as part of this class:

1. Recognize some common fall-flowering plants and their plant families
2. Understand “ethnography”
3. Develop appropriate interviewing skills
4. Distinguish between anecdotal and evidence-based information
5. Use library databases to identify relevant literature
6. Read, understand, and discuss scientific articles
7. Understand one’s own cultural bias in the interpretation of data
8. Basic knowledge of plant secondary biochemistry
9. Familiarity with important medicinal discoveries from plants
10. Basic knowledge of traditional and sustainable farming practices
11. Familiarity with plant breeding methods and genetic engineering of plants
12. Understand the origin of important crop plants
13. Effective communication of scientific (and other) ideas in written and verbal forms

Assessment of Learning Goals:

Reflective Journals:  Goals 2-4, 7
Plant Quiz: Goal 1
Interview workshop activity: Goal 3
Literature Review: Goal 5
Project Paper: Goal 6, 13
Presentation: Goal 13
Quests:  Goals 2, 4, 8-12
Class Participation: Goal 4, 6, 7, 13
Student-led discussion:  Goal 6, 13

Resource List (Useful library books, Journal titles)

Other Links:
    USDA-ARS Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases
    Cyberbotanica
    The Maize Page
    UDSA Poisonous Plant Database
    The Cucurbit Network
    Cornell University’s Poisonous Plants Webpage
    Centre for Economic Botany
    American Indian Ethnobotanical Database
    People and Plants Website
    Southwestern School of Botanical Medicine
    Ask the Plant Doctor
    Tropical Plant Database
    Missouri Botanical Garden