Teacher Notes: Yerbas y Remedios

Introduction

This lesson was developed as part of a National Science Foundation funded project called Digital Desert Library. This project is a collaboration among NMSU's College of Agriculture and Home Economics and College of Education and the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

This lesson is a long term WebQuest. It involves the investigation of herbs and remedies used by the cultures of the Southwest. Students will WebQuest through exploration of experts (ethnographers, botanists, ethnobotanists, and curators), the names of medicinal plants and their uses, and the history and folklore of these plants. The objective is to become familiar with the cultural uses of desert plants while learning methods of scientific investigation.

Content Areas and Grades

This lesson is anchored in upper elementary social studies and involves earth science and history. This lesson can easily be extended to the middle school curriculum.

Curriculum Standards

The outcomes of this project are:

a deeper understanding of the cultures of the Southwest;
a general understanding of the use of plants as remedies and/or medicines;
a deeper understanding of the data collection (investigation) process; and
a deeper understanding of the resources available in the southwestern deserts.

Social Studies Standards Addressed

Recognize the relationships among the various parts of a nation's cultural life.
Learn about the mythology, legends, values and beliefs of a people.

Science Standards Addressed

Content Standard F: As a result of activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop understanding of: personal health; populations, resources, and environments; natural hazards, risks and benefits, and science and technology in society.
Content Standard D: As a result of their activities in grades 4-6, all students should develop an understanding of properties of earth materials.
Content Standard F: As a result of their activities in grades 4-6, all students should develop an understanding of personal health and an understanding of types of resources.

Other standards may be touched upon. Check with the National Science Education Standards and New Mexico's Standards and Benchmarks. Also, this activity promotes observation and categorization skills, comparison, collaborative creative production, and time management.

Implementation Overview

This lesson is set up for use in one or more classes with a minimum duration of one week. Students are divided into groups of four and given specific information to research. They analyze their findings and prepare a group presentation that is given to the rest of the class. The students are asked to research the information, organize it, and present it. Creativity is encouraged. The time frame can be established according to the resources available. A minimum of five hours of research is recommended. The content of this project allows it to be easily incorporated into several content areas. This lesson can be part of a larger project or stand alone as a project in itself.

Resources Needed

Materials and resources needed to implement this lesson include but are not limited to:

Trade books of Southwestern folklore, history, traditions, and stories.
E-mail accounts for all students, if available.
Access to the Digital Desert Library.
A printer for downloading information.
Southwestern books and materials in the school library.
Video or audio tapes of Southwestern cultures.
Interviews with adults.

Several websites are linked to this activity and will provide additional areas for research. Partnerships can be established with local museums, businesses in the area, a local storyteller or a community elder. Parents and teachers' aides could possibly lead small group field trips in and around the community to gather information. However, this project can be done from the classroom using the library and the Internet.

Entry Level Skills and Knowledge

Students will need some prior experience with using the web and will also need a basic understanding of how to collect information and organize it.

Teachers will need some experience in organizing students into groups and keeping them on task. They will also need access to the Internet and should collect as much information as possible before the students present theirs. This will ensure the accuracy of their information. Teachers needs to make sure students are researching the correct data and not browsing the web aimlessly.

Evaluation

Students can be evaluated on research methods (how they verified data with what was gathered in interviews and on field trips, how they organized their data, what their conclusions are, etc.), on group collaboration and participation, on effective use of time, on the creative presentation of the information they gathered, and on their preservation of information for future use or reference. Students can also use forms of self and peer evaluations. For further methods of assessment or evaluation, see the National Science Standards of Assessment.

Possible Variations

Instead of breaking into groups to gather data for several plants, the class could first compile a list of plants, and groups could be given one to four plants to research. This would prevent a duplication of information when the students present their findings. However, it would also require a great deal of information gathering before beginning the project. Teachers may come up with other ways of implementing this lesson.

Conclusion

This lesson will teach students how to collect data through investigation, how to analyze, organize and present information to others, and how to understand cultures through their beliefs and practices. It will also teach plant identification and usage. This activity can be used in small groups or multiple classes where each class is considered a group.

Based on a template from The WebQuest Page.