Activity #4

Information to Record when Collecting Plants

OBJECTIVE: Students will learn the information that needs to be recorded when plants are collected. They will then apply this information to at least five different plants collected in the field. Collecting data may be written directly on the newspaper the plant is pressed in, or written on a Plant Collecting Data Form that is placed in the newspaper with the pressed plant. Plants may be pressed in the field or may be taken back to the classroom to be pressed.

BACKGROUND: It is very important that details of the collection site be recorded for each specimen collected. Plant names do not have to be known at the time of collection. - they can be looked up later. However, specifics of location, growing site, soil and surrounding vegetation are essential information and must be recorded immediately (they can be easily forgotten). This information can be written on the margin of the newspaper in which the plant is pressed or on a separate form. An explanation of each item that needs to be noted when recording collecting data is found on the Teacher Information page called Plant Collecting Data. All this information will need to be on the specimen label when the plant is pressed and mounted so it is important that it be correct.

Additional material:
Reproducible specimen label
Supervised practice of plant and data collecting

tion

The University of Arizona
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics
General Biology Program for Secondary Teachers
warder@email.arizona.edu