Supermarket botany

Supermarket Botany is a frequently used teaching resource or strategy. It uses a student's existing familiarity with plant-based foods to explore plant structure and plant life cycles. One of its strongest points is that it is adaptable to many age levels ' from lower primary school, to university and general interest groups. We have designed a unique web-based resource that combines a tutorial with an interactive test. It features accurate botanical information in an engaging format. High quality photographic images of key morphological features enable students to interpret the structures they are observing. Teachers can use the web site as a stand-alone application or as a resource for previewing/reviewing this material before/after a hands-on laboratory class. Evaluations have shown that this web-based application can result in similar learning outcomes to a traditional laboratory-based session.