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Peer Review

Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't

Reviewed:
Feb 20, 2023 by Biology
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Ratings

Overall Rating: 5.0 stars
Content Quality: 5.0 stars
Effectiveness: 5.0 stars
Ease of Use: 5.0 stars
Overview:

Website from a botanist who seeks to inspire people to learn about and love plants, phylogenetics, biogeography, speciation, plant ecoogy, and botany.

Type of Material:

Collection

Recommended Uses:

This resource might be shown in class (but expletives do occur in the narration) or used individually by students or instructors as a supplimental material or homework.

Technical Requirements:

Web browser

Identify Major Learning Goals:

To give people a context in which to place the living, non-human world that they see around them. The learning goals of the site include inspiring interest in plants and educating people about botany.

Target Student Population:

High School, College General Ed, College Lower Division, College Upper Division

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

None.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:
  • A range of areas and topics are covered
  • Excellent imagery, video and pictures
  • Expert commentary with accurate information
Concerns:
  • Lack of indicators of expertise from narrator may be offputting to some
  • Material is not organized, videos and images are not sorted according to any scheme

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:
  • Highly engaging and entertaining
  • Relatable narrator and narration
  • Popular site clearly inspires people to study botany
  • YouTube videos are closed captioned
  • Many possible ways to use these videos to generate engagement in plant biology
Concerns:
  • Expletives and social commentary may be offputting to some
  • Some videos have advertising, which can be distracting
  • A merchandise store is found on the website, which might detract from the education value and usefulness of this resource for some instructors

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:
  • Squarespace site is easy to navigate
  • YouTube channel has functionality of YouTube, including closed captioning
  • Website includes contact information
Concerns:
  • Video close-captions are autogenerated and may not meet ADA standards in education
Other Issues and Comments:

I think the author is enthusiastic and it shows. He also knows how to display the material in the best way to show all the important details.

The author's name is not found on the website or YouTube channel, but he is famous enough that his identity is locatable.

Creative Commons:
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