1999 Volume 40 Issue 1 Pages 30-41
Participation in plant identification exercise in school is a very effective method to acquire one of the goals in the science at junior high school, mentioned in national course of study in Japan, that students have interest in nature. It also contributes to achieve the environmental education which places its emphasis on the relationship between human and the environment. Ohkawa (1983) developed the simple BASIC plant identification program. In this study, the simple program which uses the same data as plant identification tables (synoptical keys) and cards (body-punched cards) was applied to plant identification exercises for students of senior high school to develop the new program [PLANT]. Laptop computers were used for field exercises. As Windows PCs are now prevalent, the BASIC program [PLANT] was run on Windows95 PCs by an emulater and [PLANT] was used in the exercises for school teachers. Plant identifications were carried out more speedy by computers than by synoptical keys and the body-punched cards. The participants understood very well the high ability of computers in processing data. Recently the use of computers in schools has been recommended for students to learn how to process data and to collect information through the internet. The plant identification exercise is suitable for information technology courses.
