Plants and People

Catalog description

This course focuses on the study of plant biology and the relationships between plants and people and how plants have shaped human history and cultures throughout the world. The diversity of the plant kingdom will be examined, as well as plant anatomy, physiology, evolution, and ecology and how these relate to their human use as sources of food, beverages, spices, dyes, fiber, shelter, fuel, and bioactive chemicals used medicinally. This course must be taken with BOT 15L, which provides hands-on opportunities to explore human use of plants and emphasizes experimental methodology, the testing of hypotheses, investigation, and the process of systematic questioning and assessment. The Lecture and Lab sections of this course, taken together, meet the general education requirement for a science with a laboratory. This course may be offered in a distance education format.