More and more of my students love to take pictures with their cell phones to help them learn the organisms and anatomical structures that we cover in class. Some years ago, I delved into photography too, taking a wonderful summer class on how to use a DSLR camera. I enjoyed taking pictures, and I was surprised and a little disappointed when I came across a psychology paper that provided evidence that taking photographs might make it less likely that the photographer remembers the event or subject (Heckel 2013). The photos that my students and I are taking in lab or field might actually be making it harder for us to learn botany!
Why would taking a photograph inhibit or “impair” memory? Maybe the photographer unintentionally relinquishes the work of remembering to the camera and its digital memory card? Or maybe the photographer is so distracted by which buttons to push that their mind is distracted away from the details of the event or subject? If my students are determined to take pictures, could I help them make the pictures more effective by having the student label the photographs? or revisit the photographs?
I’ve always heard that it helps students learn better if they draw what they see through the microscope. If taking photos impairs the memory, does that mean that drawing will improve the memory? I’m sure there are research articles out there with data that shed light on this question, and I would like to find those articles someday. In the meantime, I have decided that I would like to encourage and help my students and me draw more in lab. The problem is that I don’t draw well, and I have only a few tips that I can give students on drawing. I was excited when a local artist spoke about nature journaling as a way to pay more attention to the natural world. She recommended that I look at the book “Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling” by John Muir Laws, which is an absolute pleasure to peruse. I also found an online course in Botanical Illustration and signed up. Hopefully I will manage to write a few future blog entries on my insights from the course and my anecdotal journey to see if drawing helps me remember plants.
This spring I have been watching my Thalictrum (meadow-rue) and Aquilegia (columbine) grow, and finding that even though my brain sees a resemblance between the leaves of these two plants species in the buttercup family, I am not sure I can verbalize that similarity. My new favorite book is: “Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast: a Natural History” by Carol Gracie. Gracie is really amazing at describing in words what makes certain plants resemble each other. She says that the leaflets of meadow rue are “scalloped”, having an edge marked with semicircles. That’s it! Columbine also has leaflets in three with scalloped edges too! But there is more to it - the leaves also seems to be positioned in a similar way. How would I verbalize that similarity? Maybe an art class combined with botanical keys and Gracie’s book will help me guide me and my students to recognize and articulate plant resemblances better? Members of the same plant family often share characteristics. Could this help me learn plant families better? Certainly drawing floral diagrams is supposed to help with the learning of plant families, but I like the idea of drawing not just the flower but the whole plant.
Police artists certainly help the non-artist describe and even remember characteristics of people. I hope that the botanical illustration class will help me become better at describing and remembering plants.
Heckel, LA. 2013. Point-and-shoot memories: the influence of taking photos on memory for a museum tour. Psychological Science 25(2): 396 – 402.
Gracie, C. 2012. Spring wildflowers of the northeast: a natural history. Princeton University Press, NJ.
Laws, JM. 2016. Laws guide to nature drawing and journaling. 1st Edition. Heyday Books, CA.
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