Transcript PowerPoint Presentation - Discovering Science With Lewis and Clark

Discovering Science With Lewis and Clark
Dakota Prairie High School
Biochemistry Class - 2001
In the Fall of 2001, the Dakota
Prairie High School
Biochemistry Class took part in
the Discovering Science With
Lewis and Clark project.
During their unit on Disease
and Wellness, these students
studied plants in North Dakota
which were found during the
Lewis and Clark Expedition
which the Native Americans
believed had medicinal value.
Discovering Science With Lewis and Clark
During their unit of study, these students worked
with many areas of technology.
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digital pictures of many plants were taken
panoramic shots were taken and sewn together using
the PhotoVista program
3-D pictures were made by each student of a plant that
was brought into the classroom that would then spin on
a computer screen
PowerPoint pages were made by each student, one of
which was to be included in a presentation on ND
plants with medicinal uses
Discovering Science With Lewis and Clark
In order to accomplish these tasks, several classes
were held outdoors where students walked to a
local slough and field where, using guides, the
students identified plants and their uses
In addition, a field trip was taken to Turtle River
State Park where more of a variety of plants could
be studied
To learn more about the background of Lewis and
Clark, the PBS Video of Lewis and Clark was
watched and numerous books were made
available as references.
Discovering Science With Lewis and Clark
The students learned to identify several plants.
This is a picture of a poison ivy plant of which the
students found many examples .
Discovering Science With Lewis and Clark
The students made panoramas of area scenes both
near our school and at the park.
Discovering Science With Lewis and Clark
Following is a series of slides made by the class.
The digital pictures were taken by the students
using a Sony Mavica Digital Camera.
Information was gathered by the students using
resources from the web and several books. A
reference list follows.
North Dakota Plants with Medicinal Value
Common Name: Aster
Scientific Name: Aster lucidulus
Description of Plant: stems erect;
slender, more or less ribbed, 4 to 25
dm tall. Leaves 4 to 7 cm long and 1 to
2.5cm wide. Can have up to 100 heads.
Heads with 30 to 40 ray ligules, each
10 to 14 mm long, white to bluish; disk
yellow. Frequent on fens and other
marshy ground.
Native American Medicinal Value:
removes diseases in the skin, gets rid
of poison ivy and poison oak.
North Dakota Plants with Medicinal Value
Common Name: Big Bluestem, Turkey
Foot
Scientific Name: Andropagon gerardii
Description of Plant: This plant is a perennial
and grows in the warm season. The stems
are often branched and red looking in color.
It branches off into 3 small seed heads at the
top.
Location: Found in all of North Dakota and
Minnesota.
Native American Medicinal Value: Big
Bluestem was boiled in water to make a tea
for stomachaches and indigestion. Native
Americans also believed that switching a
person’s arm, neck, and shoulders would
sure aches and pains and drive away evil
spirits.
Sources: Selected North Dakota and
Minnesota Range Plants.
by Kevin Sedivec and William T. Baker.
North Dakota Plants with Medicinal Value
Common Name: Black Samson
Scientific Name: Echinacea angustifolia
Description of Plant: Stems single to
branched, variously hairy or covered with
knobby, hair projections to having stiff
strangled hair, especially above sometimes
smooth below.
Location: Black Samson prefers to live
in Prairie lands and Rocky side hills
with weekly developed soils.
Native American Medicinal Value: Black
Samson was most commonly used as a
pain killer for tooth aches, colds, and
snake bites, among a many other
things Sources:Selected North Dakota and
Minnesota Range Plants, Medicinal Wild
Plants of the Prairie
North Dakota Plants with Medicinal Value
Common Name: Buffalo Berry
Scientific Name: Shepherdia argentea
Description of Plant: A small tree
or shrub with dark gray sometimes
spiny branches. Leaves are oblong,
gray and green, with silver colored
scales.
Location: Found anywhere in the Plains
Native American Medicinal Value: The
Indians used it as a mild laxative and
for stomach problems
Sources:Kindscher, Kelli, Medicinal Wild
Plants of the Prairie, Kansas, University
Press of Kansas, 1992.
North Dakota Plants with Medicinal Value
Common Name: Curlycup
Gumweed, Gumweed, Curly-top gumweed,
Tarweed, Resinweed
Scientific Name: Grindelia squarrosa
Description of Plant: A biennial can be
perennial, with smooth stems usually single
and branched above. Leaves are egg-shaped
or oblong. The flowers are “sticky” to the
touch.
Location: This plant is found in all of North
Dakota and Minnesota and throughout twothirds of the United States. It grows in the
warm season and is found in dry places.
Native American Medicinal Value: Gumweed
was used as a remedy for poison ivy. The
Native Americans also used the sticky
substance as a medicine for the eye. It was
also made into a tea to help stomachache,
colds, coughs, asthma, and pneumonia
North Dakota Plants with Medicinal Value
Common Name: Fleabane
Scientific Name: Erigeron pumilis
Description of Plant: Small, flower
heads approximately 1 inch in
diameter, has narrow, strap like
shaped pedals
Location: Found anywhere in the Plains
Native American Medicinal Value: Used
to make people sneeze to get rid of
colds, toothaches, and backaches.
Sources:
- Selected North Dakota and Minnesota
Range Plants
- Medicinal Wild Plants of the Prairie
North Dakota Plants with Medicinal Value
Common Name: Lead plant
Scientific Name: Amorpha Canescens
Description of Plant: Perennial that is
native to our area. It has an erect
legume 3-10 dm tall. The stems branch
outward. Usually densely pubescent
but becomes smooth. Base having
long, soft hairs, grayish in color.
Location: Found in all of North Dakota
and North, Southwest of Minnesota.
Native American Medicinal Value: Lead
Plant was used on cuts and wounds.
The leaves were used to make tea.
They were dried, crushed and mixed
with buffalo fat as a smoking material.
They used the tea to kill intestinal
worms. Sources: Selected North Dakota
and Minnesota Range Plants. by K.Sedivec
and William T. Baker.
North Dakota Plants with Medicinal Value
Common Name: Common milk weed
Scientific Name: Asclepias syriaca
Description of Plant: Perennial herb
2.5-20 dm tall, the stems arise singly
or loosely clustered from an oftenextensive system of creeping rhizomes.
Native American Medicinal Value: Helps
relieve pain during child birth,
children’s ailments, cough, debility,
female ailments, gout, heart ailments,
hemorrhage, kidney ailments, nerves
orthopedic ailments, parturition,
rheumatic fever, women’s ailment.
http://www.homestead.org/pics2/milkweed.jpg
Additional References
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/duke/farmacy-scroll3.pl
Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases
http://www.ethnomedicinals.com/
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/literatr/wildflwr/wildflwr.htm
Native Wildflowers of the North Dakota Grasslands
http://www.desertusa.com/wildflo/FieldGuide/fieldguide.html
Desert USA, Wildflower Guide.