Botany and Plant Ecology

• Certificate

  Students completing the Field Botany Certificate will have a knowledge of the following goals and learning outcomes:

  Goal 1 Breadth across three major subdisciplines of Botany

  • Molecular and Developmental
  • The chemical and molecular machinations operating within all biological processes.
  • The centrality of genetic systems’ governance of life’s actions from the cellular to the phyletic
     
  • Anatomy, Physiology, and Organismal:
  • The coordinated regulation of integrated cellular systems and their effect on the physiological functioning of organisms
     
  • Ecology and Evolution:
  • The dynamic interaction of living systems with each other and their environments
  • The transforming role of evolution in changing life forms and how evolution explains both the unity and diversity of life.
     

  Goal 2 Core Competencies:

  • The Process of Science:  Students will use observational strategies to test hypotheses and critically evaluate experimental evidence.
  • Quantitative Reasoning:  Students will represent diverse experimental data sets graphically and apply statistical methods to them.
  • Communication: Students will disseminate results of experiments in a variety of presentation formats to a wide variety of audiences.
  • Sustainability: Students will use their knowledge of biology to address environmental issues and solutions.
     

  Goal 3 Skills:

  • Basic Lab Techniques (For example: pipetting, light microscopy)
  • Lab Safety (For example: chemical hygiene, sharpsm waste management)
  • Navigation (For example: GPS, mapping, remote sensing)
  • Plant Identification (For example: Dichotomous keying, common Utah flora, curating specimens)
  • Plant Community Sampling (For example: plot selection and design, sampling strategies, vegetation sampling methods)
  • Field Safety (For example: minimizing risk from field hazards in remote areas such as weather, travel, wild animals, and terrain)
  • Record Keeping (For example: field notebook)
     
• Associate Degree (Not Applicable)
   
• Bachelor Degree

  This is the last assessment that the Botany and Plant Ecology Department will be doing under the current Student Learning Outcomes and Curriculum Grid.  Beginning with the 2020-2021 academic year, the Student Learning Outcomes and Curriculum Grid will be aligned with the American Association for the Advancement of Science Call to Action for Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education.  The new learning outcomes for the Bachelor of Science in Botany are as follows:

  Goal 1 Breadth across three major sub-disciplines of Botany:

  1) Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental:

  • The chemical and molecular machinations operating within all biological processes
  • The centrality of genetic systems’ governance of life’s actions from the cellular to the phyletic
     

  2) Anatomy, Physiology, and Organismal:

  • The coordinated regulation of integrated cellular systems and their effect on the physiological functioning of organisms
     

  3) Ecology and Evolution:

  • The dynamic interaction of living systems with each other and their environments
  • The transforming role of evolution in changing life forms and how evolution explains both the unity and diversity of life.
     

  Goal 2 Core Competencies:

  • The Process of Science:  Students will use observational strategies to test hypotheses and critically evaluate experimental evidence.
  • Quantitative Reasoning:  Students will represent diverse experimental data sets graphically and apply statistical methods to them.
  • Communication: Students will disseminate results of experiments in a variety of presentation formats to a wide variety of audiences
  • Sustainability: Students will use their knowledge of biology to address environmental issues and solutions.
     

  Goal 3 Skills:

   1) Lab Skills:

  • Basic Lab Techniques  (For Example: pipetting, light microscopy, chromatography, aseptic technique, microbial culture and plating techniques, cell culture)
  • Molecular  (For Example: DNA extractions, PCR, Gel electrophoresis)
  • Microscopy Techniques  (For Example: Sectioning, Sample Infiltration and Embedding, Phase contrast, Confocal)
  • Safety (For Example: Chemical hygiene, Sharps, Waste management)
     

  2) Field Skills:

  • Navigation (For Example: GPS, Mapping, Remote Sensing, problem solving)
  • Plant Identification (For Example: Dichotomous keying, common Utah flora, curating specimen)
  • Plant Community Sampling (For example: plot selection and design, sampling strategies, vegetation sampling methods)
  • Safety (For example: minimizing risk from field hazards in remote areas such as weather, travel, wild animals, terrain)
     

  3) Data Management Skills:

  • Record Keeping (For example: lab notebook, field notebook)
  • Software Applications  (For example: FLOUVIEW, ARCGIS, R, MATLAB, Spreadsheets, Databases, 4Peaks)

While plants have intrigued and delighted people for thousands of years, the importance of plants to society and the functioning of ecosystems is often underappreciated.  However, we recognize connections between plants and our basic needs for food, shelter, clothing, and energy. Plants are like other organisms in many ways, but are unique in their role of providing the foundation of food webs on the planet and interconnecting organisms and their environment. Consequently, interest and understanding of plants is growing as we face changes and strive for more sustainable communities. During the last few decades we have seen an increase in the appreciation of plants as the foundation for human life. Worldwide, people are becoming increasingly aware of the role plants play in our general health and nutrition, as well as food stability. As the popularity of ethnic cuisines has grown, the variety of plants and plant products available in our markets has dramatically increased. We now appreciate plants as reservoirs of untold numbers of pharmaceuticals important in our war on disease. These interests are stimulating our collective concerns about understanding the past, present, and future uses of plants.

The loss of habitat and biodiversity has led to increased attention surrounding the role of plants in ecosystem functioning and stability. Plants interact with both aboveground and belowground biodiversity to influence ecological processes that humans depend upon.  Habitat loss, overexploitation, and global climate change pose serious threats to plant biodiversity. Threats to plant biodiversity, and subsequently ecosystem processes necessary for human survival, have led to increased interest in understanding relationships between plants and other organisms and the conservation of plant species. Botany is the study of all aspects of plants, including systematics, morphology, diversity, metabolism, and ecology. Through a study of plants, students gain an understanding and an appreciation of life at the cellular, organismal, population, community, and ecosystem levels of organization. The study of Botany can lead to professional careers in a variety of disciplines, including but not limited to conservation, soil science, sustainability, natural resource management, forestry, range management, biotechnology, plant breeding, agriculture, horticulture, environmental science, natural medicine, and teaching.

Botany and Plant Ecology Department Website

General Education Life Science (LS) courses:

• The four BTNY Gen Ed courses are assessed using questions on exams that address either the Natural Science or Life Science Gen Ed Learning Outcomes.  This is done using Chi-Tester grading of individual questions within a category.  Additional assessment is done through quizzes; student writing, including essay questions and written assignments; case studies; and other assignments that assess one or more Learning Outcomes.

General Education LS Assessment Schedule:

Courses within the major:

• Courses within the major are evaluated in a number ways.  Most courses use exams and quizzes for at least part of the assessment of content knowledge.  Other assessments include lab reports, projects (individual or group), term papers, case studies, and class presentations.

Courses within the Major Assessment Schedule:

• At a minimum, the following courses will be evaluated within the next three years.

• Assessment of Thesis, Co-Op Work Experience, etc. will be done as students complete those courses.

• 2021-2022

  1)    Review and comment on the trend of minority students enrolling in your classes (particularly lower-division, GEN Ed) and in your programs. 

  According to the university data dashboard, the trend for minority students in our programs of study reflects the trend for the university as a whole. We do not have data on enrollment in individual classes.

  2)    What support (from enrollment services, advising, first-year transition office, access & diversity, etc.) do you need to help you recruit and retain students?

  The recent difficulty we have heard about is from students who are on Pell grants.  Their financial aid decreased as a result of the change to the order of stacking the various types of financial aid awards.  Consequently, they are reducing their course loads (therefore increasing time to degree), not enrolling in individualized instruction like research projects, dropping extracurricular activities like student government, or dropping out entirely because they need to work more hours to cover expenses. The stacking order needs to be revisited as the most financially vulnerable students are being hurt.

  3)    We have invited you to re-think your program assessment. What strategies are you considering? What support or help would you like?

  We are planning to move to outcome-based assessment, rather than course-based assessment, for courses in the major. We will use our existing portfolio system to do this. During the curriculum revision, we switched to an e-portfolio which will aid in the collection of artifacts for outcome-based assessment. 

  4)  Finally, we are supporting our Concurrent Enrollment accreditation process. Does your program offer concurrent enrollment classes? If so, have you been able to submit the information requested from the Concurrent Enrollment office?

      We do not offer any concurrent enrollment classes.
   

  The full report is available for viewing.

• 2019-2020

  1) First year student success is critical to WSU’s retention and graduation efforts. We are interested in finding out how departments support their first-year students. Do you have mechanisms and processes in place to identify, meet with, and support first-year students? Please provide a brief narrative focusing on your program’s support of new students:

  Any first-year students taking courses in your program(s):

  • Syllabi for all courses, including general education courses and other lower division courses, include the following statement:
  • Brian Pilcher, learning strategist in the College of Science, can help you with learning skills such as time management, study methods, test taking, and test anxiety. He is located in TY 201D, but appointments are the surest way to see him. Make an appointment at https://brianpilcher.youcanbook.me. Other ways to contact him are 626-6110 and BrianPilcher@weber.edu. He will also offer learning skills workshops. You can find the current workshop schedule at https://bit.ly/2KW30wb.
  • The staff from the College of Science advising office visit introductory classes (BTNY 2104, BTNY 2114, and BTNY 2121) during the second and third week of classes to introduce themselves to the students and provide contact information. 

   

  Students declared in your program(s), whether or not they are taking courses in your program(s):

  • We encourage students who are declared in the program to participate in Botany Club. At the time students declare their major, we ask if they want to be on the Botany Club mailing list (no one has yet to say “no”).  We explain that we work with the club president to use this mailing list to send out information about internships, graduate programs, important department events, etc.
  • BTNY 2121, Career Planning for Botanists, is specifically designed to provide advising about academics and information about student support services, especially Career Services, to students.
  • The person who has the most contact with students outside of instructional time is our lab manager. Her office is in the midst of the classrooms and labs while the faculty offices are on a different floor and tucked away in an office suite. She lends a sympathetic ear and is very knowledgeable about the variety of student support services on campus, having used several of them herself as a non-traditional student here. She’ll send students to the appropriate support office or faculty member as needed.

   

  2) A key component of sound assessment practice is the process of ‘closing the loop’ – that is, following up on changes implemented as a response to your assessment findings, to determine the impact of those changes/innovations. It is also an aspect of assessment on which we need to improve, as suggested in our NWCCU mid-cycle report. Please describe the processes your program has in place to ‘close the loop’.

  • There isn’t a specific departmental process regarding the assessment findings. What generally happens is that an instructor identifies a problem area during a course’s assessment and then tinkers with that area the next time they teach the class. If the situation seems to improve the next time the class is taught, the “tinker” becomes an ongoing part of the class. If the situation is not better, or even worse, the change is dropped and something else might or might not be tried, depending on the results of the next assessment. The move to a two-year assessment cycle should be useful in encouraging longer trial periods for changes to show an effect in medium to large classes that are taught in multiple sections every semester and therefore present a large sample size of students. Unfortunately, our upper division content classes, on top of presenting a small sample size, are taught once a year or once every two years, making it difficult to assess the effectiveness of changes quantitatively and even qualitatively, given the variation in the backgrounds and preparedness of the students each time the course is taught.  With all that in mind, the most useful place to check the impact of changes in the major is probably from compiling several years of exit interviews with graduates where we get holistic, rather than course by course, feedback on the curriculum.  We have found this information helpful in guiding the recent changes that we have made to the Botany capstone. 

   

  The full report is available for viewing.

• 2017

  1) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?

  • We are reviewing course learning objectives across the curriculum in light of the AAAS Vision and Change document. With this, we will update the curriculum grid. This will give us learning objectives for majors courses that align better with those for LS and what incoming students are starting to encounter in K-12 due to NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards).
  • We want to better coordinate assessment questions for general education learning outcomes across all Botany general education offerings. We have started to diversify assessment measures in order to get a fuller indication of student success in general education classes beyond multiple choice exams.
  • Several faculty are involved with pilot projects on incorporating a Big Question and GELOs into their general education classes as part of the university general education revitalization. 
  • We are switching to low cost textbooks (such as the Dummies series) or free online textbooks (Open Stax) in relevant general education classes in hopes that students who try to succeed in a class without buying a standard textbook will use these resources. We are also starting to post department–generated 5-8 minute video lectures  for our lower division classes to cover gaps in the content available in the Bozeman Science videos we have been using.
  • With this report, we are using higher standards for student achievement for some of the classes. All classes will use these standards in next year’s report.  Instructors have already taken note of areas of concern (see Additional Narrative with some course assessments).

   

  2) We are interested in better understanding how departments/programs assess their graduating seniors. Please provide a short narrative describing the practices/curriculum in place for your department/program. Please include both direct and indirect measures employed.

  • The most distinctive assessment strategy for the Botany Program is the Botany Student Portfolio. The Portfolio consists of a substantial essay, worth 30% of the portfolio grade.  The essay is a culmination of the knowledge that the student gained throughout their studies at WSU. Additional evidence of skills development, self-assessment skills, career preparation, as well as creativity, ethics, and an appreciation for diversity is also required. In addition, all students must have a capstone experience (thesis or directed research, paid or volunteer Botany work experience, or a library research project) that they present orally. The portfolio requires a written statement as to how the capstone experience impacted them (see Artifacts Collection in G). http://www.weber.edu/botany/Student_Portfolio.html

   

  The full report is available.

• 2016

  1) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?

  • We are reviewing course learning objectives across the curriculum in light of the AAAS Vision and Change document. With this, we will update the curriculum grid.  This will give us learning objectives for majors courses that align better with those for LS and what incoming students are starting to encounter in K-12 due to NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards).
  • We want to better coordinate assessment questions for general education learning outcomes across all Botany general education offerings. We have started to diversify assessment measures in order to get a fuller indication of student success in general education classes beyond multiple choice exams.
  • Faculty continue to incorporate active learning practices in both general education classes and major classes. The new faculty have been particularly noteworthy in trying a variety of strategies.
  • Fall 2016 returns the department to six full-time faculty.   We have a new schedule for offering majors courses and a more consistent schedule for assessing courses in the major.  With the implementation of Grad Maps, we hope to see better learning outcomes for our majors as they progress through the major, taking major and support courses in a sensible order and combination.
     

  2) We are interested in better understanding how departments/programs assess their graduating seniors. Please provide a short narrative describing the practices/curriculum in place for your department/program. Please include both direct and indirect measures employed.

  • The most distinctive assessment strategy for the Botany Program is the Botany Student Portfolio. The Portfolio consists of a substantial essay, worth 30% of the portfolio grade. The essay is a culmination of the knowledge that the student gained throughout their studies at WSU. Additional evidence of skills development, self-assessment skills, career preparation, as well as creativity, ethics, and an appreciation for diversity is also required.  In addition, all students must have a capstone experience (thesis or directed research, paid or volunteer Botany work experience, or a library research project) that they present orally. The portfolio requires a written statement as to how the capstone experience impacted them (see Artifacts Collection in G). https://www.weber.edu/botany/Student_Portfolio.html 

   

  Each year, we ask Botany graduates in their exit interview about the portfolio and if it assisted their ability to do a self-assessment. Responses from the 2015-16 graduates include:

  • The portfolio helped me gauge my adeptness in the various areas of Botany.
  • I found that I had made dramatic improvements in all three areas (content knowledge, skills development, and affective domain).

   

  The complete report is available for viewing.

• 2015

  1) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?

  •  We need better consistency in acquiring assessment data.Planned actions include coordinating assessment questions for general education learning outcomes across all Botany general education offerings. We also plan to diversify assessment measures in order to get a fuller indication of student success in general education classes beyond multiple choice exams.
  • Faculty continue to incorporate high impact teaching, such as flipped classrooms and case studies, in both general education classes and the lecture only majors classes. Laboratory courses continue to include skills development and to be inquiry-based. Field courses are moving beyond skills development to include inquiry components as well        
  • Once the full-time faculty roster stabilizes, we will have a new schedule for offering majors courses and a more consistent schedule for assessing courses in the major. With implementation of the new schedule and the recently completed Grad Maps, we hope to see better learning outcomes for our majors as they progress through the major, taking major and support courses in a sensible order and combination.

   

  2) Are there assessment strategies within your department or program that you feel are particularly effective and/or innovative? If so, what are those strategies and what do you learn about your students by using them?

  • The most distinctive assessment strategy for the Botany Program is the Botany Student Portfolio. https://www.weber.edu/botany/Student_Portfolio.html 
  • The introduction to the portfolio guidelines states: “A portfolio is a multidimensional collection of artifacts selected by both the student and the faculty. This collection contains both developmental as well as representational materials and is well-organized and readily revisable. The material represents knowledge literacy, skills mastery, and affective development. This collecting exercise empowers students while giving new dimensions to the purpose of their education as they select items and engage in self-assessment. Portfolios are used for assessment purposes in addition to serving as an incentive to the student to develop good habits in assembling and organizing materials of relevance to themselves and others, such as personnel managers or graduate school selection committees.”

   

  Graduates are asked in their exit interview about the portfolio and if it assisted their ability to do a self-assessment. These are the responses from nine 2014-15 graduates. Question 6 of the exit interview: How well could you assess yourself with regard to the expected learning outcomes identified by the Department of Botany? Did the keeping of a portfolio assist you in your self-assessment?  If so, in what way?

  • confident, well trained
  • confident that she could interview well
  • increased confidence as she saw how much she had improved over time
  • could see how learning more helped him change to become who he is comfortable being
  • helps you brag about yourself in job interviews
  • only has self-assessment skill because of keeping the portfolio
  • able to see strengths as well as weaknesses
  • developed insight into personal development
  • easier to identify things not good at and strengths
  • portfolio helpful in that it forced him to slow down and do assessment
  • helped identify shortcomings
  • documenting achievements helped organize thoughts
  • compared essay drafts with final and realized she had actually learned a lot
  • found that his writing had improved considerably
  • could see that his writing has changed and improved

   

  The full report is available for viewing.

• 2014

  1) Reflecting on this year’s assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty’s confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence?

  • Overall, the courses assessed in 2013-2014 showed that student understanding of Learning Outcomes was at or above the threshold levels established.  Areas requiring math are still troublesome.
  • BTNY 1203:  This year’s data were all from On-line courses. The data did not specifically include questions from the pool of questions compiled by the Gen Ed LS Subcommittee. 
  • BTNY 1403:  This year’s data did not specifically include questions from the pool of questions compiled by the Gen Ed LS Subcommittee. The data compiled for Fall 2014 will be based on the LS Gen Ed Committee’s pool of questions.  We are discussing the possibility of having two sets of questions, the first from the pool of questions and the second with our questions. Comparative data will be useful in determining the best way to proceed in the future. 
  • BTNY 4890:  Our Co-Op students continue to perform extremely well in Botany-related work situations.
  • Young Botanist Awards (as indirect evidence of achievement of Botany Learning Outcomes):  2013-2014 was an exceptional year for Botany due to the fact that so many of our seniors were involved in high level research projects.

   

  2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts? 

  • The Botany faculty discussed the assessment results.

   

  3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?

  • Gen Ed LS courses: The Botany Department used the questions that the Gen Ed LS Subcommittee compiled to assess the Gen ED LS/NS Learning Outcomes in BTNY 1403. We also tried to use them in other Gen Ed courses, but found that they are often either too specific to a particular subject or too vague. As a department, we have decided to incorporate the LS Gen Ed questions from the “pool” in some manner, either as embedded questions or a separate graded set in our gen Ed courses. However, we will also use our own aligned questions and compare the results.
  • Certain topics are difficult for students to grasp (basic chemistry, photosynthesis, respiration, biomolecules, DNA and protein synthesis, etc.). In many of the sections, we now post links to selected tutorial videos to give students another resource from which to learn. Data collected in 2014-2015 should help to see if this has been effective.

   

  The full report is available for viewing.

• 2013

  1) Reflecting on this year’s assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty’s confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence?

  Overall, most of the courses assessed in 2012-2013 showed that student understanding of Learning Outcomes was at or above the threshold levels established. There were two exceptions:

  •  BTNY 1403: Results from this class seemed to be worse than in previous assessments. The reason for this is likely that the questions used to assess the Gen Ed LS/NS Learning Outcomes were chosen from the pool of questions compiled by the Gen Ed LS Subcommittee. We found these questions either to be too specific, too vague, or often worded poorly.  Henceforth, we will use questions that our faculty members compile for all of our Gen Ed assessment.
  •  BTNY 3153:  This was the first time that the class had been offered as an upper division class and the lower level version of the course had not been taught for 10 years. 

   

  2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts? 

  • The Botany faculty discussed the assessment results.

   

  3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take? 

  • Gen Ed LS courses: The Botany Department used the questions that the Gen Ed LS Subcommittee compiled to assess the Gen ED LS/NS Learning Outcomes in BTNY 1403. We also tried to use them in other Gen Ed courses, but found that they are often either too specific to a particular subject or too vague. As a department, we have decided to compile a pool of questions from our own exam banks to assess each Learning Outcome and use those in our Gen Ed courses.
  •  Certain topics are difficult for students to grasp (basic chemistry, photosynthesis, respiration, biomolecules, DNA and protein synthesis, etc.). Hence, we plan to post links to selected tutorial videos for all of the Gen Ed courses to give students another resource to learn from. 

   

  To access the full report, select this link: Botany 2012/13 Annual Assessment

2018-19
2012-13
2007-08