ENV 3150 Tropical Botany: Useful Plants Workshop

This course will provide students with a general overview of Neotropical useful plants. Students will gain insight about basic botanical concepts well as the most important uses of plants in the Neotropics. The skills, competences and values developed during the course will provide students with important tools to work in scientific research, conservation, and sustainability fields.

The course includes laboratory practices to develop specific ex-situ research and analysis competences. Field trips provide an important experience with different Neotropical ecosystems and the Flora diversity of Costa Rica, where plant adaptations and ecosystemic interactions are easily observed. For these reasons, field trips allow students to develop in-situ research, observation, ad analysis competences. A Field practice using quadrants and/or transects to compare plant diversity and forest strata could be included in one of the field trips during the course, depending on the sites visited and weather conditions.

This course usually interacts with other CIPSS courses such as Agroecology and Sustainable Development, among others, in order to exchange knowledge and experiences, including some joined Field Trips, lectures, and expert visits. The topics covered are deep regarding theory and experience. The course demands extra class reading and preparation of assignments, outside activities, and research.