Exploration of a New Task-driven Model for Botany Field Practice

Key Laboratories of Economic Forest Germplasm Improvement and Comprehensive Resources Utilization of Hubei Province, Collaborative Innovation Center for the Characteristic Resources Exploitation of Dabie Mountains, College of Biology and Agricultural Resource, Huanggang Normal University, Huanggang 438000, China

Abstract In the present context of increasing social demands for natural science education, increasing people’s awareness of environmental biodiversity protection, and ecological civilization lifting to the state strategy, it is just the time to explore a new botany field practice model. The attempt of a new task-driven model for botany field practice will greatly enhance students’ thinking about plants and nature, plants and environment, and plant and ecological civilization, and will inevitably enhance students’ initiative awareness and practical ability to protect and rationally utilize plant resources.

Key words Task-driven, Field practice, Botany

1 Introduction

As an indispensable part of the botany teaching process in the field of biological science, plant science and technology, medical engineering,etc., the field plant cognition practice is an important means of combining theoretical knowledge with the nature[1]. The field practice greatly expands the scope of students’ plant taxonomy, consolidates the theoretical teaching effect, realizes the combination of theory and practice, cultivates students’ independent work ability, comprehensively grasps the important links between plants and the environment, it has become a powerful method for promoting students to love nature, protecting environment, and conducting patriotic education[2-3]. Further exploration of the new form and content of botany field practice is the only way to carry out the botany field practice teaching activities and contemplate the transformation in the context of teaching reform.

At present, the specific goal of the botany field practice reform is to innovate concepts, set up the "student-oriented" concept, and strengthen the teaching system that combines the ability training as the main line with hierarchical, multi-module, and theoretical and practical teaching. Field practice teaching uses field visual materials, and image thinking is more than logical thinking, and strives to enable students to truly understand and master plant characteristics in plant world.

The grasp of plant characteristics should focus on the summarization and comparison of various plant features at least with the "family" as the unit, summarizing the identification points of common plant families, the general and special uses of plants, the originality of special plants, evolutionary features and the relationship between plants. In the past, due to the short time and heavy task of botany field practice, the high-intensity memory allows students to reluctantly remember the various types of plants required by the practice, but when the practice completes, students will forget characteristics of various plants very soon. On the surface, this kind of practice model is very popular, but it has little effect in actual situation. In the field practice model, teacher is the leading actor. In other words, every time the teacher takes a specimen, he will firstly introduce and explain to the student the species name, the name of the family, the shape of the plant, the type of leaves, flowers, and fruit, while the students can easily obtain this knowledge. However, this kind of practice model is extremely unfavorable for the independent thinking of students and the cultivation of innovative thinking. Thus, it is urgent to explore a new model for botany field practice.

Innovation ability is an important quality for students to develop in the future. In the process of botany field practice, strengthening the sense of innovation and giving full play to the individual initiative of students are the teaching goals of various teaching activities including the botany field practice. Incorporating plant-related research tasks into the botany field practice will definitely enhance the participation and innovation of students in the practice process. Establishing a scientific research task assessment mechanism in the field practice process, consolidating scientific problems, and solving scientific problems will greatly enhance the effectiveness of botany field practice activities, and also provide a great training opportunity for improving students’ individual abilities. Only in this way can students really get full of botany field practice and enhance their interest in plant identification and plant resource surveys.

2 Exploration of task-driven teaching model reform

The task-driven teaching model breaks the old learning way that is gradual and accumulating day by day. It is no longer taking the order of teaching content from easy to difficult points, but is driven by the completion of a specific task that is of interest and significance to students. Compared with traditional teaching methods, it cleverly integrates the teaching knowledge points into the practice task. Students learn in well-designed situations and acquire knowledge and skills through meaning construction, which can further enhance the initiative, enthusiasm and creativity of learning, so it is more favorable for the completion of teaching objectives[4]. In the past course teaching, teachers usually pay attention to teaching theory, demonstrating the actual operation process, and guiding and answering questions. Students simply repeat the actions of the teacher, without internalizing knowledge into their own skills, thus it is difficult to accomplish the teaching goals. Therefore, through combining task-driven and traditional teaching, assigning tasks to students and providing teaching resources, it is able to realize that students can arrange time to use resources to learn according to their own characteristics. Besides, in the process of completing tasks, students need to integrate old and new knowledge and skills. In the process of learning, thinking, and analyzing problems, students will find the key and difficult points in teaching, thus it is easier to complete the teaching objectives and realize the internalization of knowledge. Many scholars have carried out exploration of a new task-driven teaching model in college English, computer and elementary school information technology teaching[5-7]. Li Ping studied and designed a reasonable and effective "task-driven flipped classroom" teaching mode, which can fully stimulate students’ initiative and improve students’ operation and collaboration skills[4]. Fan Haifeng applied the task-driven teaching model to the course of Fundamentals of Computers, and obtained very prominent effect[7].

3 Arrangement of scientific research tasks in botany field practice activities

3.1 Optimization of previous experiment types and enhancement of experimental contentBefore carrying out the botany field practice, the students will conduct basic experiments and enhanced experiments in the school. It will be not only a great supplement and verification of the theory of botany, but also will greatly enhance students’ interest in botany and in-depth research. In addition, the above-mentioned basic experimental skills are the theoretical and skill basis for completing future research tasks. Without such experiments, it is unrealistic to talk about the research type botany field practice. 80% of this type of experiment belong to the verification experiment, and the rest 20% are a semi-autonomous innovation experiment of students. The strengthening of basic experimental skills is the foundation of students’ ability to innovate. Each student should be strictly controlled to master the basic experimental principles, operational methods and core skills.

In order to promote students to effectively master the experimental technology, students are required to make well preparation and teachers should take strict control. In the experimental assessment, we take one-time experiment and one-time assessment requirement, as well as an assessment before and after the experiment, which is the preparation test before the experiment and the effect test after the experiment. Of course, apart from grasping the progress of students’ experiments, teachers are more important in making correction of the experimental operation of the students, guiding the students to correctly face and deal with the problems in the experimental process, so as to ensure the smooth progress of the experiment. The semi-autonomous innovation experiment is a test of the students’ autonomous initiative. In this type of experiment, the student plays a leading role, while the teacher plays a supporting role. Teachers only provide students with experimental goals and tasks and appropriate experimental conditions and counseling. The promotion of experimental content and the scheduling of experimental time are fully completed by students and group members. In this way, students can greatly enhance their initiative and creativity in this experimental arrangement. On the one hand, the above-mentioned experiments can lay certain foundation for the students’ practical operation skills and thinking reserves, and on the other hand, it is able to establish the mode of students as the main part while the teachers as the supporting part. Besides, it is necessary to pay attention to the learning environment and students’ independent thinking awareness. These abilities and quality are essential for developing and implementing research-based field practice.

3.2 Arrangement of scientific research tasks in the process of botany field practiceCombining the existing resources of the school, the current situations of the students and the scientific research topics of the first-line teachers, and introducing the task to the botany field practice, especially the enrichment of the existing research content into the botany field practice activities, will greatly improve the current problems faced by students in the botany field practice, such as insufficient ability of students’ identification of plant features, inadequate use of existing plant classification tools and field resources, and inadequate knowledge of field plant resources research.

3.2.1Using the preliminary plant survey work on campus as a preview and skill preparation for students’ botany field practice. Common plants on campus are plant resources that are very easy to survey for students. Conducting surveys of common plant resources on campus, establishing resource archives, and mastering resource background information and dynamic changes can effectively strengthen students’ methods and activities for plant identification and survey. Identifying campus plants is the first step for students’ understanding species, going to nature, and becoming familiar with the campus environment. Huanggang Normal University covers an area of 133.3 ha. On the campus,there are numerous types of plants, the environment is relatively safe, and the activity of students can be guaranteed. Therefore, it is feasible and appropriate to carry out field survey, plant specimen collection and production, plant picture information recording, and post-identification and statistics. Of course, the entire campus plant survey can be divided into groups. On the one hand, it is able to make clear the task and purpose of students to survey campus plants; on the other hand, it is able to help students become better familiar with the field survey methods and ideas of plant resources. The identification and survey of campus plant features are intended to strengthen students’ use of plant identification skills such as various plant tools and network resources such as the Chinese Plant Image Library (PPBC, http://www.plantphoto.cn) and the Chinese Flora WeChat public platform, and plant special features and functional communication software such as Huabanlu can greatly improve the basic skills and preparations for the collection and production of outdoor plant specimens. Finally, it is favorable for students to master the principles of plant classification methods and flora and to learn writing skills of the research and scientific papers.

3.2.2Dividing students into different groups to carry out practice activities combining the research task. Huanggang Normal University is located in the Dabie Mountains which are rich in plant resources. These provide convenient conditions for our botany field practice activities. In combination with the National Wild Plant Resources Survey completed by our school in the previous period, there are numerous important plant resources such asLonicerajaponica,Dioscoreaopposita,Hemerocallisfulva,Perillafrutescens,Artemisiaargyi,Cruciferousoilcrops,Platycodongrandiflorus,PuerarialobataandRhododendronsimsii. We have gifted geographical advantages in collecting of these plant resources, the genetic diversity research. These effectively enrich and enhance the form and content of our botany field practice activities. Especially, we have in-depth research basis in the protection and development of geographical indication products such as LuotianLonicerajaponica, Wuxue Foshou Dioscorea opposita,ArtemisiaargyiLevl. et Van. var. argyi cv. Qiai, and Huangzhou turnip, these lay a solid foundation for students undertaking the above plant classification and related studies.

3.2.3Test of the effect of the task-driven mode practice activities. In order to strengthen the spirit of student collaboration and unity, we also hope that every student can truly participate in and master task-driven practice and they may undertake the practice in groups in the task-driven mode. Therefore, testing the effect of such practice activities still mainly takes the experimental group as test subjects. Each group is guaranteed to consist of 4 to 6 students. Each small group of workers needs to be clearly identified and submitted to the class teacher for record. Apart from submitting the specimens, collection forms, identification forms and related information summary tables collected by the plant in the field, each group will also assign a special person to explain the whole process of the practice task and activities. The content needs to be clear, the main line should be prominent, and the logic should be clear. The teacher evaluates the practice effect by combining physical specimens and reporting.

4 Prospects

At present, China attaches great importance to the ecological red line, pays attention to raising the awareness of environmental protection of the whole people, so it is a great opportunity to reform the botany field practice mode. Especially, in the current social atmosphere where the demand for natural science education is extremely high and the study and research tour is very prevalent, it is imperative to improve students’ ability to perform field practice activities and to enhance students’ interest in natural environment with the plant as the main part. The traditional botany field practice mode fails to strengthen the subjectivity of students, and relies too much on the role of teachers. Students need to improve their research in the field of plant taxonomy research, plant resource protection and utilization, and the relationship between plant and nature. The new task-driven botany field practice mode, especially the introduction of scientific research, will greatly enhance students’ scientific research and understanding of plant diversity, plant and ecological environment, plant and human life, and also it is favorable for students’ practice ability and establishment of scientific research thinking mode.