Development of a Database for Identification of Plants and its Use for Compilation of Teaching Materials

Abstract

Identification of plants is one of the exercises most suitable for stimulating observation of nature, and it may be practiced at different levels, from elementary schools to universities. There exist a variety of teaching materials for identifying plants, in a form of tables, index cards, computer software, and so on. In developing such teaching materials, easy access to data on the targeted plants and their characters plays an important role. A large database storing 2,172 species of seed plants in terms of their 162 characters was compiled, which is addressed in this paper as a “Database for Plant Identification”. The database was developed in order to assist teachers in assembling data for the plants they selected. Computers are extensively used in both development and use of the database. Database retrieval software provides efficiency and ease of use in gathering the data on the targeted plants and greatly contributes to effective identification exercises. A direct use of the database by students also provides a theme of the project study for high schools.