danaleeling

Day two in ethnobotany was tech Thursday with an introduction to the course as set up in Instructure Canvas and an introduction to iNaturalist. The class began with a tour of the course in Canvas including the home page, Modules, Syllabus, Pages with textbook and the in-Canvas flora. Then I introduced the iNaturalist platform.  The class then worked on downloading and logging into iNaturalist - the WiFi in A101 not being well supportive of a whole class downloading an app. After everyone had downloaded the app and logged in, I took the class out to the weed patch west of the library to make a practice observation. Out in the weed patch Students picked different targets, thus avoiding the "25 pictures of the exact same plant" issue. Gorinna captures an image of Hyptis Waiting for uploads to complete and synch Also waiting for synch to complete

This term I began with a check of attendance in A101 and a brief introduction to the dual nature of the course - scientific botany of plant diversity and ethnographic approaches to the ways in which people use plants in their culture and customs. This term I brought no plants with me into the classroom. Although there had bene passing showers all day, and the ground was wet, the class period was without rain.  I then explained that I wanted to get a feel for what the students might already know. I packed up the class and went outside to the Eugenia uniflora. The bushes had cherries and I proceeded to eat them as I explained that the plant was poisonous.  Twenty-one of the twenty-six students in the class were present for this day one class. Preliminarily perhaps 18 are Pohnpeian speakers, one Mortlockese speaker, one Chamorro speaker, and one Woleaian speaker. No one knew a local name for Eugenia uniflora, which is Pohnpeian is teri . Then I moved on to the Terminalia catappa. Only one

With the push to take all of my courses paperless, the last remaining piece of the paperless puzzle was the ethnobotany field final examination. The background to the final and the set up work for the ethnobotany field final were described in an earlier article . Facilitating the delivery of the final in the field was the acquisition in late spring 2022 of a Tripltek all weather tablet. The all weather tablet let me keep track of the order in which plants were listed on the final examination, record attendance, and make notes on changes made in the field.  The class met at the Learning Resource Center to ensure the students were logged onto the network and the  Canvas Student app . Only one student had not logged into the app prior to class. For reasons that were unclear, the Canvas Student app on the student's older iPhone would not log into Canvas. The work around was for the student to log into Canvas using Safari on their phone.  Getting set to go into the field began just afte

With few students knowing their own stories and legends, and even fewer knowing any involved their traditional plants, this presentation continues to be optional. Richard presents on the origin of Piper methysthicum Sakau: how it was brought to Pohnpei. Pohnpeian cosmology includes three inhabited realms.  Pahn lahng: The place underneath the heavens, inhabited by demigods.  Pohnpei: The terrestrial island inhabited by people. Aramas in pahn Sed: the underwater people of Pohnpei who inhabit an underwater realm in the sea. Sakau came from pahn lahng. Kerehs leng. A boy that came to the island. He passed men making a canoe. The men ignored Kerehs leng and failed to greet him. After Kerehs leng had passed, the canoe was transformed back into a tree. That boy was from place of the demigods.  One day the demigods were feasting in pahn lang. A strand of sakau fell and landed in Nett. That place in Nett is now renowned for strong sakau. People in Nett discovered the sakau.  Only a few people

This term I realized that I should not  stand in A101 and read legends and stories to the class, not if that could be avoided. Inspired by Hamilson Phillip  I had already laid the groundwork that no one version of a story is the authoritative version. Stories belong to story tellers and their families. One has to shake free of the western concept of a single correct version of events. All versions are equally and simultaneously true. I also knew that like Hamilson, or any other story teller, I could not read the story. I had to tell the story, orally, recalling the details without reference to notes. In this term of working to be fully paperless, I arrived in class empty handed. I did not take role, I did not refer to notes, I left my phone holstered out of view. Only three or four students were at the classroom at 3:30, so I headed down towards the dipwopw tree thinking to maybe hold class there. Then I decided to get a breadfruit leaf from across the road as a prop. The class, howev

A second day of work on the plants for the ethnobotany final opened up a path through the plants on the west side of campus. The path starts from the east parking lot of the gym and runs straight back to an Ixora.  Jasminum sambac is also located here. Along with a Cyathea nigricans in the middle of the Gardenia jasminoides There is also a Senna alata forest developing here. Senna alata is a useful antifungal for fungal skin conditions. From the Senna alata the path turns west towards the Haruki cemetery. The path drops down through a gully which includes this lovely remnant from twenty years ago when the Chinese were building the gym. Based on the design I presume this was a part of the star gate terminus they were working on. Or not. There is metal embedded all over the hill from that construction project. Post-construction clean-up was apparently not in the contract. Cordyline fruticosa just up the slope. Cordyline fruticosa Curcuma longa. Not sure that this will still be there at t