Virtually all life on Earth that most of us will ever see is made possible by plants. This program will provide a foundation to understand what plants do and how they do it. Winter quarter will focus on plant structure and function — how plants acquire resources, grow and develop, and respond to the physical environment. Spring quarter will focus on plants at ecological level, including population dynamics, interactions between plants and other species, and the role of plants in the global ecosystem. While we will take a scientific approach to the study of plants, this program is intended to be accessible to non-scientists and does not assume a strong background in the sciences. 

Learning experiences will include lectures, workshops, seminars, frequent short quizzes, a midterm and a final exam, and some outdoor activity (mostly in spring). Each quarter, students will keep a field journal and write two iterations of a research paper based on their developing understanding of plant biology. This class is not intended to enable students to identify every plant they see, but we will spend some time in spring on basic principles of taxonomy and plant identification using dichotomous keys.

Winter quarter will focus particularly on plant structure and function. Spring quarter will be more concerned with topics in ecology and evolution.