Spring 2027

Ethnobotany

Ethnobotany course exploring interactions between human cultures and plants, covering topics like traditional resource management, crop domestication, archaeobotany, indigenous knowledge, and phytochemistry.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Eve Emshwiller2.8/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Eve Emshwiller

The course was rated as extremely difficult, with students reporting that grading was opaque and weekly assignment feedback was never released, leaving them unaware of errors.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Provide examples of practices that fall on the continuum between foraging and cultivation (i.e., practices considered TRM or Traditional Resource Management).

  • Describe the rationale behind practices of "traditional" agriculture and how these practices compare to industrialized agriculture.

  • Summarize the process of crop domestication and the importance of conserving the diversity of crop plants and their wild relatives.

  • Describe Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Indigenous Knowledge (IK) and give examples of how they can complement the research of professional ("Western") science.

  • Describe human uses of different classes of plant secondary compounds and evaluate health claims made about plant foods or their components.

  • Describe the processes by which North American Indigenous nations lost their land, and often their agricultural traditions, from 1492 to the present day. Describe impacts of these losses on the health of Indigenous peoples, and how Native nations are now responding to this health crisis.

  • Question your own and others' claims and assumptions regarding the knowledge and practices of Indigenous cultures of the USA and elsewhere.

  • Analyze and critique the primary ethnobotanical literature.

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2 UW Guide 3

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
AMERIND/ANTHRO/BOTANY 474

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 2.29/5 from 35 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 1.5/5 raw quality · 4.0/5 difficulty · 2 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Eve Emshwiller

Eve Emshwiller taught this course with mixed feedback. One student described the class as terrible because grades were released the day before the final, and grading was never released for weekly assignments. Another student found her fun and knowledgeable, praising her teaching, but noted she was not on top of grading or giving feedback.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.66 GPA, 86.2% A/AB (n=65 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.81 GPA, 90.0% A/AB (n=60 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.48 GPA, 66.7% A/AB (n=66 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

EVE EMSHWILLER is recorded teaching in Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 690
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 690
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 690

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Eve Emshwiller

Students described Eve Emshwiller as knowledgeable and enjoyable to interact with, noting her strong performance when teaching BOT410 for the first time.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.66 GPA, 86.2% A/AB (n=65 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.81 GPA, 90.0% A/AB (n=60 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.48 GPA, 66.7% A/AB (n=66 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Eve Emshwiller

The course was rated as extremely difficult, with students reporting that grading was opaque and weekly assignment feedback was never released, leaving them unaware of errors.

Past student reviews · Eve Emshwiller

One student found the class frustrating because grades were released only a day before the final, and Canvas options to view potential grades were disabled.

Topics

  • Traditional resource management and agriculture
  • Crop domestication, evolution, and conservation
  • Archaeobotany
  • Indigenous knowledge
  • Folk taxonomy
  • Plants in symbolism and religion
  • Dietary patterns
  • Phytochemistry

Skills

  • Analyze traditional resource management and agricultural practices.
  • Summarize crop domestication processes and conservation strategies.
  • Evaluate the role of Indigenous and Traditional Ecological Knowledge in scientific research.
  • Assess plant secondary compounds and related health claims.
  • Critique primary ethnobotanical literature.

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
AMERIND/ANTHRO/BOTANY 474 · Spring 2027

Ethnobotany

Recorded 2026-10-14
AMERIND/ANTHRO/BOTANY 474 · Spring 2027

Ethnobotany

Recorded 2026-10-14
AMERIND/ANTHRO/BOTANY 474 · Spring 2027

Ethnobotany

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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    "course_id": "AMERIND/ANTHRO/BOTANY 474",
    "course_uid": "course_472ac2607c8e6c7df2ffbfb0",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "023375",
    "source_subject_id": "140",
    "title": "Ethnobotany",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall"
  },
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    "credits_min": 3,
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  },
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    "offering_id": "1274:208:023375",
    "course_id": "AMERIND/ANTHRO/BOTANY 474",
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    "term_id": "1274",
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]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "7e6c1d61daf74ad73f2edfd48db10df84ec9e2b1a1e357b12631249d4c8a86d5",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}