1. Home
  2. Peer Review: C3, C4 and CAM plants

Peer Review

C3, C4 and CAM plants

Reviewed:
Mar 31, 2018 by Biology
Bookmark

Ratings

Overall Rating: 4.8 stars
Content Quality: 4.8 stars
Effectiveness: 5.0 stars
Ease of Use: 4.8 stars
Overview:
The C3, C4, and CAM plants site is an interactive learning experience that will help users understand the differences between C3, C4, and CAM plants and how they operate under various conditions. This site provides a well organized and an interactive learning experience for its users. The material is presented in a simple and informative way.
Type of Material:

Animation.

Recommended Uses:
This material could be used in the classroom, or might be better suited for individuals who wish to learn on their own pace.
Technical Requirements:
This site requires Flashplayer 8+.
Identify Major Learning Goals:

This site is designed to teach concepts using animations. It is designed by a subect expert, education expert and computer designer.

Users will learn about how the different types of plants bind CO2 during photosynthesis.
Target Student Population:
High school and undergraduates will benefit from this site.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Some plant biology knowlege would be useful. The resource requires some facility with interactive websites as well. 

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:
  • The information is accurate and provides a good basic background about the material
  • Interactivity keeps users interested in the material
  • The information is accurate and fairly interesting
  • Animations are well done and show good detail
  • The topics are well-organized
  • Quality of graphics is very good
  • Animations and simulations are straightforward
  • The animations are good quality
  • The animations greatly simply the processes of carbon fixation which facilitates understanding the major concepts
Concerns:
  • The content is very basic--some terms are not explained
  • The simplifications make the material very basic--more detail could be included wihtout making the resource too confusing
  • The C4 section indicates that PEP carboxylase fixes CO2 using an existing 3-carbon molecule to form a 4-carbon molecule, however, in the CAM section it is said that PEP carboxylase creates a 4-carbon organic acid. These should be regularized.
  • Only a few examples of C4 and CAM plants are given, which does not capture the range of plants that use these pathways

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:
  • The pedagogy of providing information is a nice blend of learning and interactivity li>The images shown are colorful and engaging
  • Animations are easy to follow
  • The material is logically presented
  • Material is presented in such a way that it can be used in lecture
  • The animations are engaging
  • There is a self-quiz at the end
  • There is some interactivity (clicking buttons to activate animations)
Concerns:
  • The self-quiz only includes 3 questions, all of which are lower level thinking--some critical thinking questions would be nice

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:
  • The information is well organized
  • Site is fast and intuitive
  • No defective links or major bugs were found
  • Very easy to navigate to the different major sections of site
  • The information is organized and follows a logical order
  • Animation flows very easily
  • There is a menu that expands with mouse roll-over, which allows navigation to any page in the animation
  • The layout is easy to follow in general
Concerns:
  • There does not appear to be accessibility for some disabilities
  • The molecules in one section are represented by grey, light blue, and red circles; I used a colorblind simulator and found the blue balls are visible but the red and gray appear identical--even without colorblindness, the colors are hard to distinguish as rendered
Other Issues and Comments:
The authors have done a great job with this site.
Creative Commons:
creative-commonscreative-commons by