Botany lab two iNaturalist

Botany laboratory two was redesigned from a year prior. One of the focuses of the botany class is on the use of apps. iNaturalist is an app that is used to make observations of living organisms including plants. iNaturalist includes a system that can assist in potentially identifying a plant. Data gathered by iNaturalist users is often used in biodiversity and range studies. 

The laboratory started with an introduction to iNaturalist. 14 of the 22 students had already been introduced to iNaturalist, thus the first part of this laboratory was review for over half of the class. Only eight students were  new to iNaturalist.

After a presentation on how to use iNaturalist to make an observation, the class will split up into four groups to go out and make an observation. 

Group one: Plants cross the entrance road from the new health building from the main road back to the soccer field.

Group two: Plants along the main road from Jed's to the Daniel ("Green") store.

Group three: Plants between the student services building and the women's residence hall.

Group four: Plants between the cultural huts and the bookstore.

Each group had two or three group leaders who were students with prior experience on iNaturalist. The rest of the class was told to join the group of their choice. This helped increase the diversity of plants observed and was quite successful. 


After making their observations, the students returned to A101 where you will work on determining the scientific name of your observation. The following resource was used to assist with identifying your observation:

Flora (technically still under construction spring 2025)

Once you have identified your plant by scientific name (Genus species) submit the link address (copy via sharing), the scientific name, the scientific Class, and the scientific Phyla for your plant in Moodle for the laboratory two assignment. 


Medleen waiting for her obesration to sync with a wall of Miconia crenata behind here. 

Karen makes an observation along the road in the group 2 region.

Marstella and Hercly in the group three area.

After the observations the students return to A101 to work on identifications. A demonstration of how to access the taxa screens and determing the Phyla and Class for their plants was also done. 

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