Cultural Uses of Plants: A Guide to Learning about Ethnobotany

Paye (lead teacher, Boston Public Schools) presents a detailed, thoughtful curriculum to teach middle- and high-school biology students how to design and implement their own scientific experiments using a plant from their own culture. Written to take about one-third of a school year but may also be broken into smaller segments. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Gabriell DeBear Paye grew up in New York City. She earned a B.S. in Environmental Horticulture with a minor in Botany in and an M.A. in Education from the University of Connecticut. From 1985 to 1987 she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia, West Africa, where she taught biology and agriculture and learned firsthand about tropical agriculture and ecology. In 1987 she came to Boston to teach biology and horticulture in public school. Following an Earthwatch trip to Mexico in 1994 to work with ethnobotanist Bruce Benz, she began writing and testing ethnobotanical activities in her classroom. In 1994 she launched an ethnobotanical web site for teachers on the EnviroNet and in 1996 she was selected as an Access Excellence Fellow with Genentech. She received a Global Teachnet Award from the National Peace Corps Association in 1997 for her ethnobotanical curriculum materials. In 2000 she was awarded a fellowship by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation! to travel to Costa Rica with a group of other leading teachers to study human impacts on environmental systems. She is a Lead Teacher in the Boston Public School System.