Ethnobotany final

The ethnobotany field final examination experienced issues at a scale not previously seen. There had always been an occasional shared answer, a rare accidental vocalization of the name of a plant. There had been a couple instances of outright copying from another paper - but only a couple times in fourteen years. By and large the honor system functioned for the final examination.

The loss of knowledge, however, is so extreme and precipitous, that what was once an easy final examination is now exceedingly challenging for a generation of students unaccustomed to studying intensely for anything.

Starting in the fall of 2022 the residential course went paperless. The course had been increasingly paperless, including being completely paperless during the pandemic. The residential version had still used some handouts but was essentially paperless. This spring the final examination was also paperless.

The final examination covered 18 plants in pairs of questions such as the pair above. The first question in the pair is the local name of the plant that would be in front of us at that moment. The fill in the blank answer uses a bank of local names in the local languages to mark the question. The second question in the pair is a multiple choice format question on the use of the plant.

Due to construction the class had to route outside the wire

From early on in the exam I was aware that some students were quietly sharing answers. I had further evidence of this when students who arrived late had answered questions for plants that they had not seen. Two students who arrived at plant 15 of 18 successfully identified 14 plants they had not seen. Along with the uses.

The exam began with 17 students in the field

Preventing all over-the-shoulder peeking in the field is not practical. There are 26 students in the course, and the final exam began with 17 students. As students gather around a plant in the field there will inevitably be opportunities to see each others work.

Photography has always been a part of the modern take on ethnobotany that the course embodies. I too take photographs to document our shared experiences. I do not ban cameras or photography in class. And for the final exam the photos provide documentation of who was present. There have been instances of students arriving late in the past. More unusual, there have been instances where a student left early. The field final takes roughly an hour and moves from one end of the campus to the other.

The length of the field final is why I cannot, as was suggested to me, administer the final individually. That would take 26 hours. I could theoretically use small groups, but information would certainly leak from earlier groups to later groups.

The final is in the format of a Canvas quiz. The students are answering the questions using their mobile devices connected via the campus WiFi.

After the final I became aware that, for the first time, students were sharing photos to absent students who were at remote locations. That has not happened before. I was stunned when I learned about this.

This term I had not had time to clear a path at the west end of campus. Externally the west end plants looked to be intact. Once the class went back to the plants we discovered downed plants and tangles of branches. In the area above Senna alata had been knocked down. There was limited space to access the Cyathea nigricans. A wind storm back on April 20 had caused the chaos.

The hike over to Haruki would prove more surprising: A large Falcataria falcata was down along with branches being down from other Falcataria falcata trees. We worked our way around the downed timber.

This also contributed to the class being in separated areas which precluded proper supervision. The open space that had been here was gone.

This plant is apparently Curcuma australasica, not Curcuma longa. The larger, broader leaves are a visual characteristic of this species. The plant is not used for seasoning or in coconut oil. Instead the larger leaves are used on Kosrae to wrap food for cooking in an um, a ground oven made of basaltic rock. Note that um is the Kosraean spelling, on Pohnpei the spelling is uhm.

A late arrival appears from behind a building

The field final had the advantage of being an authentic assessment. The final was born out of the arrival from the states of a purported expert in botany. When they arrived I confessed that I was a bit at a loss in identifying many of the plants in the botanic garden. She was eager to come to campus and assist me.

We walked around the garden and she spouted off very scientific sounding binomials. But I knew some of the plants. "Um, isn't that..." I would say and she would invariably respond with words to the effect, "Oh, yes, that must be it." After a short while I realized she was just making up names. She would be gone within a year from her position here - she was apparently an academic fraud of some sort. But that gave me my final. The students should be able to walk through the forest and name their plants and uses.

I could toss the final out, but that seems to be tossing the baby out with the bathwater. At present my thinking is bring the impact of the final down so that the final cannot change a grade. At present the 36 point final can change a grade, and I actually do not want the final to do that. The course is an experiential course, an academic journey, not a content destination.

Weather has always been an issue for the final, so here is my current concept. A video tour of the plants on campus. No narration. Students use text entry submission method to list the names of the plants they see and their uses. The video is just a walk across campus. In theory there will be hundreds of species visible. But this gets back to the "Walk through your forest and identify your plants and their uses."

A rubric is used to mark the submission.

Criterion one: local name correct. Optimal includes generally correct spellings. Sufficient, suboptimal, no evidence on a 5, 4, 3, 0 rating scale.

Criterion two: local use. Also optimal, sufficient, suboptimal.

Criterion three: a sufficient number of plants identified. Left completely vague. Because if you say n plants, then the students will only name n plants. I want this to be open ended to some extent.

CSLO1

CSLO2

That would produce a 25 point rubric. The video would be online - with all of the pitfalls that might bring. But the key is that the final would weigh in at about the same as a presentation and absenteeism would not be problematic.

Another adjustment that should be returned to the course is credit for presence. The course is a community journey through shared knowledge. With the average number of absences at an incredible 10.7 absences the class never fully gelled as a community. Attendance seemed to be deemed to be optional. There is a need to potentially also depublish those elements that facilitated absences - the remnant hangover of video support material from the pandemic.

End of class role shots: