Botany and Plant Ecology Assessment Results

• Mission Statement

  The mission of the Botany and Plant Ecology Department at Weber State University is to create an environment for students from diverse backgrounds to blossom as scientists, to root themselves as ecologically conscious citizens, and to grow into thoughtful botanists.  We accomplish this by recognizing that botany is one of the few scientific disciplines that explicitly touches each culture; therefore, we strive to value and respect the diversity of cultural knowledge that shapes our understanding of the plant world. We offer a variety of high quality classroom, laboratory, and field experiences across the discipline. Our botany graduates find employment in academia, industry, or government. 

• Student Learning Outcomes
  • 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)

   

   

• Curriculum Grid

  Update in Progress
  We are currently transitioning to a different format. Please contact oie@weber.edu to request a copy of the current curriculum grid for this program.

• Program and Contact Information

  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.

   

  Contact Information:

  
  Dr. James Cohen
  Weber State University
  1415 Edvalson St., Dept. 2504
  Tracy Hall, Rm 416
  (801) 626-7434
   

  Botany and Plant Ecology Department Website

• Assessment Plan

  As was discussed during the prior Biennial Assessment report, we have had one faculty member retire (Spring 2023) and another leave (Spring 2025), and we have hired new tenure-track faculty who started in Fall 2024 and 2025 (although the one starting most recently was an instructor in the department previously).  While the semester some courses are taught has become more consistent (e.g., Taxonomy of Vascular Plants taught every Fall), other courses are taught more irregularly.  Furthermore, the approach to some courses has changed as new faculty members revise them and take ownership.  During the current academic year, we are offering two new courses, BTNY 3224 (Plant Morphology) and BTNY 3420 (Wildland Fire Ecology), which will be assessed this academic year.  Other aspects of the Botany and Plant Ecology assessment plan will remain the same as previously reported, including our approach to collecting and reviewing data as well as the way in which departmental faculty engage in assessment review and update classes and departmental curricula based on results.  For assessment, faculty use a diverse array of measurements, ranging from quizzes to exams to written assignments to final projects to field discussions.  These allow for multiple, distinct approaches to understanding learning in courses and across the program.  Individually and collectively as a department, we reflect on our teaching and consider the most appropriate ways to close the loop, including continuing to implement approaches that we believe, based on assessment data, are working to ensure learning among our students.  Botany majors tend to perform well on reports and presentations, and we incorporate these types of assignments across the curriculum.  One reason that students may do better on these types of assignments compared to exams is that faculty build into classes multiple opportunities for feedback throughout the semester, which can be helpful to students, and, based on multiple anecdotes, many students have test anxiety, which could result in lower grades on these types of assignments.  Students also may perform better because of the longer time horizon for the reports and presentations, which can allow for more thought and refinement before the final product is due.

  Unfortunately, given that two of our faculty members who left each were the only instructors for specific courses, we do not have assessment data for BTNY 3153, 3214, 3303, and 3504.  Additionally, BTNY 2303 has only been taught by adjunct faculty for the past few years, so we do not have assessment data for this course either.  For the courses that are currently scheduled to be taught during the present academic year, we have a plan to assess these, and we will plan to do so for the other courses when they are next taught.

  While we are not, at present, suggesting that we update our assessment plan, there are two throughlines in the program that are noticeable challenges in the assessment data below.  It would be intriguing to focus on these in more detail in future assessments.  These include pattern recognition and scale.  In BPE, we teach multiple courses in which students need to learn to recognize organisms and their structures, and students tend to struggle with this in multiple courses (e.g., BTNY 2114 and 3624).  There are, admittedly, many organisms and structures to learn in order to be a successful and effective botanist, and doing so involves being able to identify patterns, rather than just being able to recognize plants and their parts.  Students in BPE may need to improve their pattern recognition abilities to more readily be able to identify structures, which can involves using critical thinking abilities to better recognize patterns.  At the same time, students may just need additional time and practice to become proficient with pattern recognition.  Indeed, students perform better in BTNY 3810 and 4810, which involve a lot of plant recognition, compared to BTNY 3624, which is a prerequisite course for BNTY 3810 and 4810.  The other concept is scale, which is that students may understand a biological concept at one scale (e.g., population), but not be able to apply the concept to a larger scale (e.g., community or ecosystem).  While this may also relate to pattern recognition, it may more aptly concern translating concepts to a new situation.  As a department, we plan to discuss these two challenges to see if there are ways that we can address these and incorporate them into future assessment plans as well as ensure that we are addressing these topics in our courses.
   

  BTNY Course	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	2025-2026
  2104 (Plant Form and Function)	Assessed	Not Assessed	Assessed	Assessed
  2114 (Evolutionary Survey of Plants)	Assessed	Assessed	Assessed	Assessed
  2121 (Career Planning)	Assessed	Assessed	Assessed	Assessed
  2203 (Home & Garden)	Not Assessed	Not Assessed	Not Assessed	Not Assessed
  2303 (Ethnobotany)	Assessed	Not Assessed	Not Assessed	Assessed
  2413 (Natural Resource Management)	Not Assessed	Not Assessed	Assessed	Not Assessed
  2600 (Lab Safety)	Not Assessed	Not Assessed	Not Assessed	Not Assessed
  2750 (Topics in Science and Society)	Not Assessed	Assessed	Not Assessed	Assessed
  3105 (Anatomy of Vascular Plants)	Assessed	Not Assessed	Assessed	Not Assessed
  3153 (Biology of the Plant Cell)	Assessed	Not Assessed	Not Assessed	Not Assessed
  3204 (Plant Physiology)	Assessed	Not Assessed	Assessed	Not Assessed
  3214 (Soils)	Not Assessed	Not Assessed	Not Assessed	Assessed
  3303 (Plant Genetics)	Assessed	Not Assessed	Not Assessed	Assessed
  3420 (Wildland Fire Ecology)	Not Assessed	Not Assessed	Not Assessed	Assessed
  3454 (Plant Ecology)	Assessed	Not Assessed	Assessed	Not Assessed
  3473 (Plant Geography)	When Taught	When Taught	When Taught	When Taught
  3504 (Mycology)	Not Assessed	Not Assessed	Not Assessed	Not Assessed
  3583 (Medicinal Plants)	Not Assessed	Not Assessed	Not Assessed	Assessed
  3624 (Taxonomy of Vascular Plants)	Not Assessed	Assessed	Assessed	Assessed
  3810 (Introduction to the Utah Flora)	Not Assessed	Not Assessed	Assessed	Not Assessed
  4113 (Plant Evolution)	When Taught	When Taught	When Taught	When Taught
  4750 (Topics in Botany)	When Taught	When Taught	When Taught	When Taught
  4810 (Field Studies of the Utah Flora)	Not Assessed	Not Assessed	Not Assessed	Assessed
  4950 (Advanced Field Botany)	Not Assessed	Not Assessed	Not Assessed	Not Assessed
  4990 (Botany Capstone Seminar)	Not Assessed	Assessed	Not Assessed	Not Assessed

• Assessment Report Submissions

  To view assessment report submissions prior to April 2026, please visit our assessment archive here. 

• Program Review

  2018-19

This information is part of the cyclical program review process. Details such as mission statements, learning outcomes, etc., are updated as part of the biennial assessment reporting process, an integral component of program review.