Are Our Students Taxonomically Challenged or Not

Bibliographic Data

ID18994692
AuthorsHan Lau (University of Hawaii System, corresponding author), Will C Mcclatchey, Will Mcclatchey (University of Hawaii System), David Reedy (0000-0002-4854-7772, University of Hawaii System), Al Kealii Chock (University of Hawaii System), Kim W Bridges (University of Hawaii System), Zak Ritchey (0000-0001-9516-2587, University of Hawaii System)
Year2009
Volume7
Pages029
Publication date2009-01-16
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthnobotany Research and Applications (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1547-3465 • E-ISSN: 1547-3465
PublisherIlia State University (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.17348/era.7.0.29-37
OpenAlexW2098283399
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited6

A class exercise to introduce plant taxonomy to non- science majors was conducted as part of the Botany Segue of our Introductory Ethnobotany course at the University of Hawai`i in Fall 2007. Students were given the opportunity to name and develop their own classification schemes for forty plant materials. This paper discusses the results of the class exercise. Binomials were used more often than monomials for plant names and the pattern was reversed for category names. Students used many adjectives and terms related to plant parts to name plants and categories. Of all the adjectives used, color and texture were used most often by students to name plants and categories respectively. In general, students were well aware of the different functional roles of plant and category names and illustrated this frequently by using binomials consisting of noun-adjective combinations to name plants and monomial nouns to name categories

Adjective · Biology · Botany · Linguistics · Mathematics education · Monomial · Natural language processing · Noun · Plant taxonomy · Animal and Plant Science Education · Computer Science · Fern and Epiphyte Biology · Mathematics · Philosophy · Plant and animal studies · Artificial Intelligence

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