Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - 1:30 PM
132-3
Introducing CROPVIEW into Plant Science Curricula.
Lori Unruh Snyder, Agronomy Department, Purdue University, 2-414E Lilly Hall, West Lafayette, IN 47904, Kenneth Quesenberry, PO Box 110500, University of Florida, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-0500, and Tracy Irani, Univ. of Florida- Agricultural Education and Communication Dept., PO Box 110540, Gainesville, FL 32611-0540.
CROPVIEW (Comprehensive Resources for Observing Plants in a Visual Interactive Enhancement Window) was created to enhance the curricula of introductory Plant Sciences courses. The goal of this project was to help students become aware of major food plants that humans consume and the biomes where these food crops are grown. The target audience was individuals with non-agricultural backgrounds. Most of these students fail to understand that a relatively small group of plant species compose the primary plants that supply almost all food for the world's population. Additionally, many students have not seen these major food plants growing, nor can they recognize and identify the plants or seeds from the plants that are consumed for food. These concepts have traditionally been taught through factual based lecture material, photographs, and less frequently seed and plant identification laboratories. The need to allocate space and resources for production and storage of laboratory materials limits the ability to use these approaches in web-based and/or distance education settings. Plant and seed identification and recognition is facilitated by study of a visual presentation of the plants and seeds to recognize subtle difference among similar seeds and plant types. The objectives of this project were to create accessible 3-dimensional images of plant seeds and to have high quality one-dimensional images of food crops in order to develop an animated hands-on-learning tool (game approach). Students identified plants and seeds given a set of key characteristics to identify the physical differences between each species. Students enhanced their knowledge base of the crops via identification of seeds/plants through an animated game by testing their knowledge through a series of questions that reinforced concepts on differences in basic physiology, anatomy, and taxonomy. Modules were evaluated on two classroom populations one with access to CROPVIEW and one without access.