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| General
Instructions for Local Flora Lecture and Laboratory
1. This course is based on the philosophy that science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a process, a method of inquiry. Biology is a means of discovering interesting facts about the living and once-living organisms in the world of nature. 2. Students can expect to learn to identify the most common plants of the local flora. More importantly, you will learn basic characteristics of the most common families of flowering plants, gymnosperms, and ferns which will help you to identify much of the flora of the world. You will know how any vascular plant can be identified. 3. In addition to morphological features of these plants, students will learn something of how these plants evolved and how humans have used the plants for food, medicine, fiber, ornamental landscaping, etc. 4. Finally, students will observe plant associations in nature and discover the basic principles of phytogeography, ecology, and conservation. The importance of preserving biodiversity will be evident. 5. The lectures, reading assignments, projects, field trips, laboratories...even the examinations are learning opportunities that require the student’s active involvement. Attendance and full participation are required. The course is delivered in a way that requires near perfect attendance for success. 6. All quizzes and examinations are required. The instructor will make special arrangements with students who have legitimate excuses for absence but only when the absence is announced in advance. 7. Because we want to make maximum use of field experiences and use living organisms as the basis of our study, the course content and sequence may be changed. Mother Nature does not have a copy of our syllabus!! 8. The Saturday Field Trip on May 19 is required. You should have sufficient time to make arrangements with family and employers. We will leave campus at approximately 7:30 am and return at approximately 3 pm. In case of severely inclement weather, the trip will be moved to an alternate date. [NOTE: Final decision on these dates will be made after consultation with the students.] 9. Students enrolled for EEOB 510 will complete a “Local Flora Interpretive Project” and will present the project to fellow students at the last laboratory session. Details will be discussed in class. Grades will be based on
the number
of points earned. There are 625 (OR 725) total points:
Letter grades are assigned only at the end of the course, not to each examination. Each graded exam paper will show the number of points earned and the student's rank in class, i.e., how many students scored higher on that examination. E-mail Communication and World Wide Web All students at Ohio State University have an e-mail address. If you are a new student you need to activate your account (there is no fee). You can activate your account online: Just go to Then, when you have questions about the "mechanics" of the course (e.g., "Will the Field Quiz be Monday or Wednesday?" or "May I come to your office at 2:00 next Thursday to check the identifications of some of my plants?") or the course content (e.g., "I'm confused... what is the definition of a species?"), you can ask your question in class or send it to Dr. Kramer by e-mail! His e-mail address is kramer.8@osu.edu . Eventually we will establish a "bulletin board" system so that student questions and instructor answers can be shared with the entire class automatically. There is a "homepage" for this course on the World Wide Web (WWW). Go to When you get to this page, click on "Site Index" and you go to the next page where you will find this syllabus and other useful links. The "Botany in Cyberspace" link in the Site Index should be useful for many parts of the course. If you have not read it in connection with another of my courses, it would be a good idea to read "Study Tips for Plant Biology Students." Perhaps the most useful page for this course is "Families of Flowering Plants" which is still "under construction!" It probably will not be finished this quarter because it requires many hours to gather the information and images. If any students want to help with this project, they are welcome! Several introductory plant biology books have excellent web sites with learning aids. Web sites for the textbooks are:
Newcomb, Lawrence. 1977. Newcomb's Wildflower Guide. Little, Brown Handouts Students will receive a large number of handouts. These will be 3-hole punched. Students will want to purchase a 3-ring binder to keep this material organized. Botanist's handlens, plant presses (including dryers and ventilators), microscopes, dissecting tools, reference manuals, etc. Equipment and Supplies Provided by the Student Three-ring binder (for class handouts, notes), small (pocket-size) spiral note pad for field notes, old newspapers (for drying plants). The following items are not required but are useful for plant collecting: plastic bags, pruners, small trowel or other digging tool for removing plants from soil, paper tags or masking tape or some other means of marking field collections. These field quizzes are announced in the syllabus. You will be asked to identify plants which the entire class saw on an earlier field trip or in lab. Each quiz will be worth 25 points earned by naming genus, species, common name, scientific name of family, and common name of family for each of 5 plants. 1. Each student is required to turn in a collection of 20 correctly identified plants on May 24. 2. These are to be plants of the local flora, not landscape ornamentals or crop plants. Collecting is to be done only with strict adherence to sound conservation practices. This will be discussed in lab. 3. Complete, detailed field notes must accompany each collection. 4. Each specimen will have a typewritten herbarium label with standard information: scientific name (genus and species with the authority)5. Specimens will be correctly pressed, with flower and/or fruit or other distinguishing part(s) needed for identification, arranged to reveal the distinguishing parts, and placed in a clean folder of newsprint. Except for woody plants, the underground roots/rhizomes/bulbs/etc. must be included. 6. The collection will be graded on its completeness, accuracy of identification, and quality. All collections potentially will become the property of The Ohio State University. If you plan to teach or if you plan a career in natural resources or wildlife management you might want to press extra plants for your personal collection. 7. A WORD TO THE WISE: Collect and press more plants than are actually required because some will not press well or may prove difficult to identify. DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE: It takes some plants several weeks to dry thoroughly. Dr. David W. Kramer
Office Hours <>Before and after class and.....M,T,W,R 9:00 - 10:30 AM M 1:00 - 3:50 PM Other times BY APPOINTMENT |