NSW Department of Primary Industries | CSU Homepage
Educational Tools
This page provides access to educational programs. At present the only tool is Supermarket Botany but watch for future additions!
Supermarket Botany
Supermarket Botany is an excellent platform for teaching students about the differences between fruits and vegetables, the differences between roots, stems and leaves and the developmental sequence from flowers to fruits. Many people have published information on Supermarket Botany in different forms over the years. Hopefully we have developed a fresh approach.
Drs Geoff Burrows and John Harper worked on the selection of items for 'the shelf' and the accompanying text.
Jenni Horsnell took the images of the fruits and vegetables on the 'on the shelf' page.
Dr Geoff Burrows took the images on the 'Why?' pages.
Prof Scott Black performed the ToolBook programming and web page design.
This application only works with Windows Internet Explorer 6 and above and Firefox 3.0 or above (both Windows and Mac OSX). It does not function with other browsers.
Supermarket Botany Resources for Teachers
- Survey table (pdf) - This file includes our ‘standard’ survey form and a simplified one for younger students. Teachers may like to survey their class before doing a hands-on or computer-based Supermarket Botany demonstration and then re-survey a few days or weeks later to assess what has been learnt.
- Species table (pdf) - This table is designed for senior high school and university students. It facilitates discussion of scientific naming, authority citations, taxonomic relationships, differences between monocotyledons and dicotyledons, etc.
A description of Supermarket Botany appeared in the June 2009 issue of Teaching Science (citation: Burrows, G. E. and Harper, J. D. I. 2009. Supermarket Botany. Teaching Science 55(2): 47-50).