non-majors plant courses

[Christopher T. Cole]

I haven't taught a non-majors course BUT still will make a suggestion,
since you are considering some "economic botany": Henry Hobhouse's _Seeds
of Change_ is a marvelous account of the roles of a half dozen plants in
human history (tea, cotton, quinine, potato, etc.)-- he is a great
storyteller.  I've stolen (& condensed) his stories and told them to my
classes, and it's the favorite part.  

Our approach for non-majors is to have "topics" courses for them, complete
with labs (and/or field work), but without bio majors.  They work quite
well. 

-Chris Cole


At 08:31 PM 1/16/03 -0000, Beverly Brown wrote:
>Hi all!
>
>I've just been given the opportunity to consider a non-majors plant 
>course with a lab and am wondering what others have done along these 
>lines.  I'm starting to toss around an economic botany type class but 
>can consider other alternatives.  Students would take the class to meet 
>their science requirement at our liberal arts college.  
>
>Would anyone like to chime in? I would be most grateful for those 
>willing to share syllabi and text recommendations.
>
>Thanks in advance!
>
>Beverly
>
>-- 
>_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:
>
>Beverly J. Brown, Ph.D.                Phone:  585-389-2555
>Nazareth College of Rochester      Fax:      585-586-2452
>Biology Department                      E-mail: bjbrown at naz.edu
>4245 East Avenue 
>Rochester, NY 14618-3790
>_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_
:_:_:
>
>
>
>---
>
>
Christopher T. Cole
Associate Professor of Biology
University of Minnesota - Morris
Morris, MN
colect at mrs.umn.edu
---