Go Botany: Integrated Tools to Advance Botanical Learning: Year 3 Evaluation Report

Our Year 3 formative evaluation of Go Botany, a four-year NSF-funded project focused on botanical learning, centered on tracking the continued development and the launch of the Go Botany Simple Key, which contains botanical data on more than 1200 native plants in the New England region. The project is a collaboration between the New England Wild Flower Society and three partnering institutions: The Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich, VT; The Chewonki Foundation in Wiscasset, Maine; and the Yale Peabody Museum on Natural History in New Haven, CT. During Year 3, the Go Botany Simple Key was launched, and the evaluators (working with project staff) collected some preliminary data from some instructors at the Wild Flower Society, and some amateur botanists who had used the website. We also collected data from visitors at the Montshire Museum who used a series of exhibits based on Go Botany, but targeted at children and their families. Our primary evaluation questions included: How does the Go Botany simple key/website and related experiences meet the needs of each user group amateur botanists, general museum visitors, students, and others? How do Go Botany users rate their experiences with the simple key, and related products? Do they report increased interest in or knowledge of botany based on these experiences? How are the Simple Key and related products being incorporated and used at the partner institutions? What feedback/reactions do their visitors provide? How do the project partners rate their experiences as being part of Go Botany? How has the project addressed their needs and enabled them to develop tools for their various audiences? Despite the challenges of creating a relatively user-friendly website for botanists and students/members of the general public at varying levels, including those with very limited exposure to plants, the Simple Key was found to be engaging and informative by most users in our initial groups. Initial data indicate that the Simple Key is engaging for amateur botanists and other interested adults. Go Botany appears to be well-designed for sites such as the Wild Flower Society, Harvard Forest, and other organizations that offer botanical education courses. The Simple Key has sparked interest among environmental education students at Chewonki, and engaged students at Yale-Peabody. In addition, some of the basic concepts built into Go Botany have been integrated into two interactive kiosks at Montshire, which appear to be both interesting and informative for children and adults. The partners, and initial user groups, valued the flexibility of the Simple Key, and the way users can find multiple entry points to identify their plants, rather than be restricted into the ‘forced choice' format of a traditional dichotomous key. One of the challenges going forward, in addition to completing the project deliverables, is to determine how and if the Simple Key is engaging for youth and adults with limited experience in and knowledge of botany. During Year 4, the partner institutions will have opportunities to use Go Botany with diverse user groups, and project staff will have more data on how individuals and small groups use the keys, in classes and computer labs and in the field. The partners, and several adults who tried out the Simple Key, emphasized the value of having a version of the Simple Key available for use in the field. A smartphone-friendly version, combined with Go Botany's PlantShare feature, is likely to appeal to adults and to students, who are used to social networking and are often comfortable with new technology and mobile devices. The appendix of this report includes the interview protocols used in the study.

If you would like to edit a resource, please email us to submit your request.