Document: SUS-3-28-20

A digital site of pedagogical and interactive information to teach ecology developed through the ESA.

MUSANTE, S.* ¹, C.D'AVANZO ² and B.GRANT ³

Ecological Society of America, Education and Outreach, Washington, DC USA ¹
Hampshire College, Amherst, MA USA ²
Widener University, Chester, PA USA ³

Abstract:
With new NSF support, we are creating a CD-ROM and an ESA-linked web site to provide ecology faculty a set of peer-reviewed and field-tested "Experiments" and "Issues" in ecology. The resource is not merely a static site of labs or topics for lecture discussion, it is an interactive set of new materials that are both scientifically and pedagogically valid. Our goal is to have each new unit meet standards-based learning objectives and use innovative strategies for teaching, assessing growth among the full diversity of student learners, and improving teaching through formative and summative evaluation. The poster will describe the pedagogical and classroom materials, as well as annotated links offsite, that are directly linked through keywords from the "Experiments" and "Issues" sections of the site. The resources provide background explanations and references to the pedagogy and enable faculty to use and evaluate new innovations in education in their classrooms and participate in rigorous research in ecological education to learn what works and why. The resources will also include links to original educational research papers (some reprints to be embedded with permission on our CD-ROM), and other published educational resources (e.g. bibliographic materials on pedagogy, teaching resources web sites, and educational research funding sites).

Keywords: teaching, pedagogy, web-based resources, ecology education

This abstract is being presented at: 3:30 PM in session:
Poster Session #3: Education.