Welcome to class! Finally the day has come that we are unveiling the online version of BIOL190 – Introduction to Alaska’s Flora (in its fifth year). Sorry the video is using the old class name, but you are in the right class BIOL190. I hope you are as excited as I am to learn about our incredible flora, get to know some of its players by name, and get close and personal with them through plant dissection. The class will throw a lot of new terms at you, do not despair if that is a little overwhelming at first. Look at it like learning a new language, you want to talk with your foreign friend and have a good conversation, but first you need to get all the vocabulary down. The first conversation might not be as refined as you may wish, but it will all fall into place once you have many small conversation with your friend(s) and classmates, and soon the concept of botanical terms will become second nature. Soon you will sit at the kitchen table and contemplate using canned or fresh berries for your tomato sauce :). Have fun, and I am looking forward to learning more about the plants that grow in your area, and your adventures exploring your outdoor botanical laboratory.
As some of you night have noticed, you will see posts from previous students on the WordPress site. That was done by design. You might even be interested in browsing through previous posts. Lots of good stuff there from students that took the class in previous years. Please do not plagiarize their work though :).
Cheers, Steffi.
Hi Everyone,
My name is Izuchukwu Ezukanma. I grew in Nigeria, West Africa where I attended universities (and studied Lower Green Plants and Environmental Pollution Monitoring) before moving to the United States to join the McDaniel Lab, Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. My lab is part of a cohort of research units trying to understand the effects of climate change on high latitude plant communities; the effect of plants on weathering and hydrologic processes and such related questions.
I have studied mostly bryophytes growing on agroforests like cocoa plantation in the past. Since I scarcely know about high latitude plants. I hope to get familiar with high latitude plants; get more comfortable using botanical terms, and learning how to prepare herbarium specimens for curation.
I look forward to learning new things and meeting new people who are interested in studying plants.
Hi Everyone,
My name is Izuchukwu Ezukanma. Perhaps you are having some troubles pronouncing that, Izu, is just fine too. I grew in Nigeria, West Africa where I attended universities (and studied Lower Green Plants and Environmental Pollution Monitoring) before moving to the United States to join the McDaniel Lab, Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. My lab is part of a cohort of research units trying to understand the effects of climate change on high latitude plant communities; the effect of plants on weathering and hydrologic processes and such related questions.
I have studied mostly bryophytes growing on agroforests like cocoa plantation in the past. Since I scarcely know about high latitude plants. I hope to get familiar with high latitude plants; get more comfortable using botanical terms, and learning how to prepare herbarium specimens for curation.
I look forward to learning new things and meeting new people who are interested in studying plants.
Welcome Izuchukwu,
I am glad you are able to join us from Florida, and I hope we can highlight some of our plant diversity from up North for you in this class. Enjoy! Best, Steffi.