Professor: Jackson Course format: Seminar Number of respondents: 20 Total Enrollment: 22 Class Composition: Froshs: 21 Sophs: 0 Jrs: 1 Srs: 0 Concs: 2 Non-Concs: 15 Don't Know: 3

Instructor Average: 1.89 Course Average: 1.91

“Botanical Roots of Modern Medicine” is a freshman seminar that aims to teach students about ethnobotany and plant structures. Students enrolled in this course also learn about how to care for plants and about the medicinal roles plants can play. The course requires no official prerequisite, and most students agreed that none was necessary.

Greenhouse Manager Fred Jackson, who taught the course, received largely positive reviews from his students. Reviewers praised Mr. Jackson’s willingness to take their needs into account, saying that this was extremely accommodating. Most also praised his enthusiasm and were pleased with how passionate he was about the subject he taught. Reviewers loved his slides and overheads, and thought his labs were effective and interesting. Although most people enjoyed his lectures, some commented that he focused too much on the slides. A few were frustrated by the amount of lectures, and would have preferred for more experiments and hands on learning.

The assessments for this course consisted of two exams, a paper, a project and three labs. Most students thought this was a very reasonable expectation and praised the labs as the best part of the class. In general, respondents were very pleased with the handouts, but thought that most of the readings were unnecessary and redundant.

Most of the class members said that they spent one to two hours a week on the work for this class, which was less of a time commitment than they had expected. Many of the reviewers advised incoming freshmen to take the class, especially if they had a hard workload, since it is both easy and interesting.

View BI/0019 in the Brown Online Course Announcement.