Development and Evaluation of the ‘Pocket Plant Guide’ to Support the Observation and Identification of Indicator Plants for Vegetation Succession

Keita Muratsu, Fusako Kusunoki, Yoshiaki Takeda, Haruka Inoue, Etsuji Yamaguchi, Shigenori Inagaki, Hiroshi Mizoguchi, Masanori Sugimoto

2013

Abstract

We developed and evaluated a mobile system called ‘Pocket Plant Guide’ for support the observation and identification of indicator plants for vegetation succession. One characteristic of the ‘Pocket Plant Guide’ is that it uses sketches instead of photographs. This guide contains 3 representative functions that help students in identifying and observing of indicator plants. These functions include (1) coloured representations of leaves and fruits; (2) enlarged images of leaves and fruits; and (3) sketches of the backside of the leaves. We allowed Japanese sixth grade elementary school students (age 11–12 years) to use the ‘Pocket Plant Guide’ to identify and observe indicator plants. After this activity, we used a questionnaire to evaluate the ease with which the students used the guide, and validated the usefulness of the guide for identifying and observing indictor plants. The results indicated that the ‘Pocket Plant Guide’ was quite easy to use and was effective in supporting the identification and observation of indicator plants.

References

1. Huang, Y., Lin, Y., & Cheng, S. (2010). Effectiveness of a mobile plant learning system in a science curriculum in Taiwanese elementary education. Computers & Education, 54(1), 47-58.
2. Inoue, H., Kusuoki, F., Takeda, Y., Yamaguchi, E., Inagaki, S., Mizoguchi, H., & Sugimoto, M. (2012). Evaluation of a mobile plant-identification System to support the study of vegetation succession. In Biswas, G., Wong, L., Hirashima, T., & Chen, W. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Computers in Education. (pp.438-440). Singapore.
3. Morita, Y., Enomoto, S., Fujiki, T., and Yamamoto, T. (2004). Science fieldworks leveraging plant information search system using cellular phones: A case study. Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications. (pp.5033-5036). Switzerland.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Muratsu K., Kusunoki F., Takeda Y., Inoue H., Yamaguchi E., Inagaki S., Mizoguchi H. and Sugimoto M. (2013). Development and Evaluation of the ‘Pocket Plant Guide’ to Support the Observation and Identification of Indicator Plants for Vegetation Succession . In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU, ISBN 978-989-8565-53-2, pages 675-679. DOI: 10.5220/0004409306750679

in Bibtex Style

@conference{csedu13,
author={Keita Muratsu and Fusako Kusunoki and Yoshiaki Takeda and Haruka Inoue and Etsuji Yamaguchi and Shigenori Inagaki and Hiroshi Mizoguchi and Masanori Sugimoto},
title={Development and Evaluation of the ‘Pocket Plant Guide’ to Support the Observation and Identification of Indicator Plants for Vegetation Succession},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU,},
year={2013},
pages={675-679},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0004409306750679},
isbn={978-989-8565-53-2},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU,
TI - Development and Evaluation of the ‘Pocket Plant Guide’ to Support the Observation and Identification of Indicator Plants for Vegetation Succession
SN - 978-989-8565-53-2
AU - Muratsu K.
AU - Kusunoki F.
AU - Takeda Y.
AU - Inoue H.
AU - Yamaguchi E.
AU - Inagaki S.
AU - Mizoguchi H.
AU - Sugimoto M.
PY - 2013
SP - 675
EP - 679
DO - 10.5220/0004409306750679