A University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa botany course provided an opportunity for face-to-face learning outdoors during the COVID-19 pandemic, offering a welcomed relief in an otherwise virtual summer of study, by utilizing the Mānoa campus, a designated arboretum, as the classroom.
The experiential Botany 160 course equipped students to recognize on sight, and identify by common and botanical names approximately 100 plants on the UH Mānoa campus. At the conclusion, students highlighted plants describing their origin, status in Hawaiʻi, diagnostic characteristics, and cultural and economic uses.
In attendance with UH Mānoa student Nataley Nakata were Riley Regan and Kamaile Marcus, high school students from UH Mānoa Outreach College’s regularly offered Summer Scholar program.
“I was intrigued by how numerous the uses of the plants around campus and the Lyon Arboretum were, and still are; I also realized the gravity of how important species preservation is in regards to the remaining endemic plants here on Oʻahu and throughout the neighbor islands,” said Nakata, a UH Mānoa senior. “I would definitely recommend this course to a friend for the experience of walking around and getting to know the different areas and plants on the UH campus.”
“Having studied about Native Hawaiian plants in scouting, I thought it would be fun to learn more about plants during the summer at UH Mānoa,” said Regan, a junior at ʻIolani School. “Our instructor was great and very knowledgeable. The excursion to Lyon Arboretum was a real highlight of my summer. I was amazed at how many plants that I learned about over such a short time period!”
100-level courses offer exposure
This, and other 100-level courses, serve as an introduction to a wide variety of study areas. By the end of the botany course, students acquired adequate information to view their neighborhoods differently, bringing the background of greenery into focus.
“The value, for me, is introducing plants to people and people to plants in a way that, hopefully, is meaningful to each individual so that each person begins to see themselves as a part of a larger system of ecological connections and understands the impact plants have in our livelihood,” Nōweo Kai, instructor for the botany course, a graduate of UH Mānoa Department of Botany, and curator for the UH Mānoa campus arboretum.
Kai’s responsibilities include managing records and inventory (i.e. genealogy and whereabouts) for the more than 6,000 plants throughout the 320 acre UH Mānoa campus.
“I am privileged to work closely with the landscaping department, faculty and staff, and the broader community members to interpret the campus plants’ rich history and diversity,” Kai added.
This course is an example of UH Mānoa’s goal of Enhancing Student Success (PDF) and Building a Sustainable and Resilient Campus Environment: Within the Global Sustainability and Climate Resilience Movement (PDF), two of four goals identified in the 2015–25 Strategic Plan (PDF), updated in December 2020.
