Assessing and documenting campus plant diversity to increase students’ connections with nature

    

Kimberly M. Kellett

Advances in Biology Laboratory Education, 2024, Volume 44

https://doi.org/10.37590/able.v44.art13

Supplemental Materials: https://doi.org/10.37590/able.v44.sup13

Abstract

Spending time in nature has been shown to reduce stress, but students lead busy lives with little time spent outdoors and are increasingly disconnected with the natural world around them. This series of lab activities is designed to address common learning objectives of Introductory Biology classes while spending time outside on campus and becoming familiar with species they see every day. As a result of these activities, students can contribute long-term data sets on campus plant community diversity. Students do not need any previous experience with plant identification or ecological sampling. These labs are designed for non-majors Biology students but could be modified for majors. They do not require any specialized equipment. Students will spend time outside on campus conducting assessments of species richness and Simpson?s Diversity Index. They will also use data to construct graphs and test simple predictions. Students who complete these labs will gain a familiarity with basic terms associated with plant identification and learn to recognize common campus plant species

Keywords:  Biodiversity, Plant biology, Ecology, Graphing, Species Richness, Data Analysis

University of California, San Diego (2023)