The benefits of collaboration are immense. It is extremely helpful to see how other people study, how they remember names and characteristics and little tricks they use as compared to my own. Personally I like to use actual pictures of the plants we look at in class to remind me of the discussion and the characteristics pointed out. I used little drawings to decipher the Latin names on flashcards. Although they were mainly personalized to myself and not many people would understand them without my explanation I had a few class mates come up to me after class and say "I remembered your helicopter robot, or your phyllo stacks!" so I believe without the help of my little drawings and without my extra studying of having to explain my drawings maybe we wouldn't have done as well on the test! I have a small group of classmates that get together to study plant ID and botany on a regular basis, this is helpful for all of us because we can call out the answers we know and learn the ones that others know. We sometimes draw or paint pictures and are coming up with more fun and exciting ways to study to encourage ourselves and each other to enjoy studying and not get side-tracked.
When it comes to plant identification versus plant recognition well I just moved to this area so many of the plants outside the garden are brand new to me even if they are recognized by people from bc. Many of the plants I see daily we have identified in class and now that I know them I recognize them all the time! So plant id leads to plant recognition I guess! Learning the basic characteristics, family and name of a new plant helps you to recognize it in day to day situations. For example I see Tansy everyday, when I started school I had no idea what it was, what family it was or anything, and now I see it and its like a reel of information going through my head.
Now what we need is a fungi id class!!! I LOVE MUSHROOMS!
