The University of Maryland offers two undergraduate courses that emphasize economic botany: separate introductory lecture and laboratory courses for nonmajors that together meet a general education requirement, and a junior-level lecture course for majors and nonmajors. The lower course has about equal lecture emphasis on basic biological science, plant kingdom, and economic plants. One laboratory (of 12) is devoted to economic botany: measuring the nutritional value of foods. Textbook is Plants and Society by Levetin & McMahon. Laboratory manual is Experiments in Introductory Botany" by Browning. Complete lecture outlines with illustrations are on our website at http://www.inform.umd.edu /PBIO/PBIO/pbio.html Students work in twos or fours in laboratory, but partners are assigned and change every week. At the end of the semester students present a 5-minute paper on a biological topic of their choice, which is predominantly medical subjects but is very diverse. This course serves 360 students per semester The upper level course is entitled "Plants of Economic Importance". Textbook is "Plants in our World" by Simpson & Ogorzaly. Lecture material is heavily supplemented from Smartt & Simmonds "Evolution of Crop Plants" and Sauer "Historical Geography of Crop Plants". There is no laboratory, but many plants and products are examined, dissected, and eaten in lecture. Emphasis is on origin evolution of crop plants, botanical structures, culture and processing, products, uses, marketing. Target audience averages 15% plant biology, 60% other biology, 15% other majors; class size is 14-24 every spring. The class is racially, culturally, and nationally diverse; students' experiences are shared as an integral part of the information presented.

Key words: economic evolution, experiences, laboratory, origin, website