Introduction

Basic Objectives

Enrichment/Extension

Skills Needed

Safety

Resources

Method

Assessment/Rubrics

Interdisciplinary Unit

MEDICINAL PLANT/ETHNOBOTANY UNIT   Introduction   This unit is designed to help kids learn about the diversity and value of plants. It also validates the contributions of indigenous peoples to our knowledge of medicine. This website and unit is the product of my sabbatical. I hope that it is a useful resource for teachers. Feel free to use any or all of this, change it, add, subtract or improve it to suit your needs.   I have done this lab with 7th graders, used these books and materials, previewed the videos and used the assessment tools. They all work for me. I’m sure that I add things off the top of my head based on my experiences, as you will too.   If you have any suggestions for improvement, rave reviews or constructive comments please write to me at JIKOJ@aol.com   This unit can be used as is, or as a starting point for your own creation. It should be adjusted to the level and needs of your students.   Basic Objectives Students will: learn to identify plants found in their study area note the historical or medicinal importance of their plants determine if their plants have antimicrobial properties become aware and acknowledge the contributions of indigenous scientists be able to predict which plants may have antimicrobial effect. Possible Topics for Enrichment or Extension Other topics to explore might be, introduced plants (both accidental and on purpose), indigenous food plants, bacteriology and the use of phytochemicals in allopathic medicine.   Cultural F.Y.I. Don't be at all surprised if you encounter some reluctance on the part of tribal people to share their knowledge. As you might expect, their expertise has often been exploited by drug companies and others. If, during the course of this unit, you utilize tribal people as resources, please take the time to acquaint yourself with the protocols and manners specific to the group that you are dealing with. When in doubt, remember Aretha Franklin's advice, "R.E.S.P.E.C.T." Skills Needed linear and volume metric measuring knowledge of basic plant nomenclature for taxonomy a method for taking field notes (graphic organizer provided ) good group skills ( as the teacher, you will have to monitor these ) basic knowledge of sterile technique for bacterial cultures     Safety In these litigenous times, I suggest that you don’t allow your kids to ingest, inhale or even use topically any of the phytochemicals that you encounter in this lab. Follow all District/Building/Department safety protocols. Please, no flames or heat when making tinctures. Do this on a different day than the decoctions or infusions. Once inoculated petri dishes must remain sealed and be disposed of in accordance with school HAZMAT protocols. IF YOU DON’T HAVE SAFETY PROTOCOLS, WRITE THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Resources   Need to have:   1. Outdoor World Series, Teachers Guide & Students Guide Please Note: These books contain detailed directions on how to do the extractions of phytochemicals from your plants. They also have material lists: lab glass, filter paper etc. Most importantly, these books contain lots of helpful information pertaining to science and tribal people, learning styles of American Indian students, effective teaching styles, using tribal and community resources etc.   SOURCE Science and Mathematics Learning Center P.O. Box 5697 Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, Arizona 86011 (520) 523-7160   2. Easygel Antibiotic Effects kits cat. # L8100 Easy to use Petri dishes, media, bacterial cultures, antibiotic discs etc.   SOURCE Connecticut Valley Biological Supply Co. Inc. 82 Valley Road P.O. Box 326 Southampton, MA 01073 (800) 628-7748   Note; There is a 3M product called “Petrifilm Plates” they are used instead of Petri dishes. I have not used these but they look promising. I’m going to try these this fall, I will modify this site if I find that they work. Available from Flinn and Carolina.   3. A warm dark place to incubate your cultures     4. A field guide to plants of your area. These are good: Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants, by Foster and Duke Peterson series, Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 0-395-92066-3 Note; contains a pictorial glossary of flowers, roots and leaves, good for taxonomy.   Weeds of Nebraska and the Great Plains, by Stubbendick, Frisco and Bolick Nebraska Department of Agriculture, ISBN 0939870-00-4 Note; has a section on historical/medicinal use for most plants.   Medicinal Plants of the Desert and Canyon West ISBN 0-89013-182-1 Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West ISBN 0-89013-104-X Both by Michael Moore Museum of New Mexico Press P.O. Box 2087 Santa Fe, NM 87504 Note: highly recommended!   Nice to have:   Books Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World Jack Weatherford Crown Publishers ISBN 0449904962   Indian Doctor Book Aerial Photography Services Inc. 2511 South Tryon St. Charlotte, NC 28203 (703) 333-5243   Amazonian Ethnobotanical Dictionary Dr. Jim Duke, Dr. Rudolfo Vasquez CRC , ISBN 0-8493-3664-3 Lots of technical info on medicinal and chemical properties of Amazonian Plants. A good one for high school or beyond. Videos Little Medicine (The Way to Avoid Big Medicine) Jim Mueninck (800) 487-0522   A Walk in the Rainforest With Dr. Jim Duke Very Nice Introduction to this unit.   A Walk Through the ACEER Useful Plant Trail, Mark Plotkin Might be good for more advanced classes, mentions various chemical compounds. Note: The above 2 are available from, Environmental Media Corp. (800) 368-3382 www.envmedia.com (this link has neat lesson plans on a variety of topics)   Method   1. Form Lab Teams.   2. Locate and Mark Study Area.   3. Identify all plants in your area. Take daily field notes using the following graphic organizer. They can be written as a narrative or just as notes. Date. Where did I go? What did I do? What did I learn or find out? ( can be cognitive or affective learning, ex. “ We identified the mugwort and I learned that Julio needs to be given a specific job to do during labs” ) 4. When all plants in your area have been identified, have each group choose 1 or 2 plants to test. They can make infusions, decoctions or tinctures out of one or more parts of the plants. The Michael Moore books have good instructions on this and the Peterson Guides have some instructions though not as detailed.   5. Using the Outdoor World Life Science Teachers and Students Guide and the Easygel kits have each group test their extracts. They should use blank discs for their extracts. You will have to order extra blank discs, as the ones in the kit are intended for use as a control.   6. Groups will record their results by measuring the zone of inhibition around their plant extract discs, if present, and comparing them with the antibiotic discs.   7. They should make any other observations that they think are relevant.   8. Answer the following discussion questions. How did your extract compare with the antibiotics? Support your answer to the above question! Did any stray bacteria get into the Petri dish? Again, support your answer. If you could do this experiment again, what would you change, and why? Assessment Below is a variety of assessment tools. I actually use all of these to come up with a grade for this unit.   Individual   1. Lab practical, identify 10 common plants found during our study. Identify 10 plants as to whether or not the leaves are alternate, opposite, types of inflorescence, herbaceous, woody, monocot, dicot, etc.   2. Name 5 plants used by indigenous people and their application.   3. Grade field notes. See section on rubrics.   4. Grade the lab write up. See section on rubrics.   Group Assessment Activities (kids work in groups on these) see section on rubrics.   5. You are stranded at a cabin in the woods and have a headache, cough, constipation, cut or. . . . What plants might you use to help your group. Be sure to tell how you would use the plants.   6. Describe or demonstrate how you would test a plant for antimicrobial properties.   7. Brainstorm ideas on how you would predict that a plant may have some potential as a medicine.   8. Group skills evaluation sheets, self evaluation, and evaluation of others.   Rubrics Rubrics are helpful tools for evaluating labs, field work, and open-ended activities. You will need to write your own based on your expectations. These are examples of what I use.   FIELD NOTES Staying on task. 1 2 3 Completeness. 1 2 3 (date, where did we go, what did we do, what did we learn) Overall Quality 1 2 3 4 _______________________________________________________________ TOTAL X/10 Points LAB WRITE UP Staying on task. 1 2 3 4 Completeness. 1 2 3 4 Discussion Questions 1 2 3 4 5 6 Overall Quality 1 2 3 4 5 6 _______________________________________________________________ TOTAL X/20 Points GROUP ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES Staying on task 1 2 3 4 Application of knowledge Learned during unit and Logical solution to problem 2 4 6 8 Group skills (based on Teacher observation) 1 2 3 4 Overall Productivity 1 2 3 4 _______________________________________________________________ Total x/20 Points GROUP SKILLS EVALUATION This type of peer evaluation has great potential for bruised feelings (maybe jaws too!). I take a great deal of care to set this up with the kids, we discuss at some length the dynamics of friendship, helping your buddies, kissing-up, and ripping others. The main messages are that if you want to help your buddies in the long run, you must give them an accurate measure of their performance whether good or bad, and that to give a fellow group member a bad evaluation out of meanness just doesn’t fly. Finally, who gave whom, what score, is never revealed by the teacher.   During a several week unit like this I do 2 group and self evaluations , one midway or 1/3 into the unit and 1 at the end. Only the last one counts. The first one is a reality check and gives them a chance to improve.   This is a SELF evaluation. Each student fills one out based on her/his perception of his/her own performance. They must put their names on this one!   SELF EVALUATION NAME _____________________________ SCIENCE 7 PERIOD__________________ CIRCLE THE APPROPRIATE NUMBER NOTE: 4/3 = ALWAYS, 1= NOT. NO DECIMALS! 1. I CONTRIBUTED TO THE PROJECT (I WORKED) 1 2 3 4 2. I WAS HELPFUL AND SUPPORTIVE OF OTHERS 1 2 3 3. I SHARED INFORMATION READILY 1 2 3 (I COMMUNICATED AND WORKED AS A TEAM MEMBER) _______________________________________________________________ TOTAL X/10 Points Now in this one, each group member fills one of these out for each other person in their group. Notice that they are not to write their own name on this sheet GROUP EVALUATION NAME OF GROUP MEMBER_____________________________ SCIENCE 7 PERIOD__________________ CIRCLE THE APPROPRIATE NUMBER NOTE: 4/3 = ALWAYS, 1= NOT. NO DECIMALS! 1. I CONTRIBUTED TO THE PROJECT (I WORKED) 1 2 3 4 2. I WAS HELPFUL AND SUPPORTIVE OF OTHERS 1 2 3 4. I SHARED INFORMATION READILY 1 2 3 (I COMMUNICATED AND WORKED AS A TEAM MEMBER) _______________________________________________________________ GRAND TOTAL X/10 Points Now you, the teacher, need to total up all these scores. I give each student a sheet like this. This point total also figures into their grade. I use 2 spaces in my grade book, one for their self-evaluation, and one for the average of scores that their groupmates gave them. It is often useful to note disparities between these two scores!   GROUP EVALUATION AVERAGES NAME _____________________________ SCIENCE 7 PERIOD__________________ 1. I CONTRIBUTED TO THE PROJECT (I WORKED) 1 2 3 4 2. I WAS HELPFUL AND SUPPORTIVE OF OTHERS 1 2 3 5. I SHARED INFORMATION READILY 1 2 3 (I COMMUNICATED AND WORKED AS A TEAM MEMBER) _______________________________________________________________ GRAND TOTAL X/X Points You may want to adjust this total to fit your grading method Interdisciplinary Unit This topic makes a great theme for an interdisciplinary unit. Listed below are some suggestions for areas to explore in other disciplines. These are by no means complete and are meant to be a starting point for brainstorming and to stimulate some enthusiasm for an interdisciplinary unit.   Math Plant extracts are sometimes expressed in ratios of dry material to solvent, also as percentages of standardized active constituents. This could be explored within the context of a consumer unit - best value in terms of active ingredient per $, or per dose, per year etc.   Social Studies Many plants found in the U.S. were introduced by immigrants either by accident or on purpose. The old world was dramatically influenced by the export of New World plants such as tobacco, coca and my favorite - chocolate. If you include food plants the potential areas to explore are limitless: potatoes ( potato famine ) chiles, tomatoes and their influence on European and Asian cuisine.   English Literature written by or about indigenous people often contain references to medicinal plant use. Night Flying Woman by Ignatia Broker is a good example of this.   Art My experience has always been that your Art department will rise to the occassion. One thought would be to examine the work of the painters who traveled with Cook and Darwin.

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