Abstract Detail

Teaching Section

Poulton, Jennifer [1].

Using student-designed visual guides to promote plant recognition.

With almost constant exposure to visual stimuli from televisions, computers, cell phones, and other digital devices, today's students are becoming visual learners. For these students, image-based keys provide a useful alternative to traditional taxonomic keys for plant identification. In 2012, I challenged my students to learn to recognize 50 common trees of the Midwest in hopes of increasing their awareness and appreciation of the plants living in their local environment (thereby reducing plant blindness). For this project, students created their own visual guides to prepare for a tree identification exam. Students had the option of designing a paper or digital identification guide, which they were allowed to use on the exam. The timed exam consisted of 40 PowerPoint slides with 3-4 images per slide. In addition, visual guides were evaluated for accuracy, organization, image choice, and ease of use. For students, the process of creating the visual guide and learning to use it effectively facilitated rapid identification on the exam and promoted future tree recognition.

Broader Impacts:

1 - Graceland University, Division Of Science And Math, 1 University Place, Lamoni, IA, 50140, USA

Keywords:
visual guide
visual key
image-based key
plant recognition
plant identification
tree identification
plant blindness
visual literacy
visual learning.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 39
Location: Delaware A/Hyatt
Date: Tuesday, July 10th, 2012
Time: 3:15 PM
Number: 39007
Abstract ID:1018