PARENT SESSION
Contributed Oral Session 13: Ecology Education I
Monday, August 8, 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM, Meeting Room 520 C, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal

Let's take it outside: Incorporating field research in the classroom.

Pinilla, Theresa^*,1, ¹ Stockbridge Middle School, Stockbridge, GA, USA

ABSTRACT- Each summer, teachers join researchers at the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER to assist with field studies.Throught this experience, we learn the details of day yo day field work. The researchers who work with us become mentors and valued contacts. Our coastal studies have taught us about that ecosystem, and its impact on other aspects of life as well as how other life affects the coastal ecosystem. Our student's view of science is influenced by our own. The SAPELO Project offers new and veteran teachers the opportunity to work alongside researchers at the University of Georga Marine Institute on Sapelo Island. Our teaching is informed and trasformed during our time in the field. Whether surveying plant communities in the marsh, searching for exotic crabs in the oyster reefs, studying blue crab parasites, or gathering hydrologic data, our theroetical and practical knowledge and abilities are enhanced. We return to our schools with new inspiration for inquiry-based investigations that parallel the ongoing coastal research. To our students we BECOME scientists when they see our photos or the LTER website. They begin to see science as something done by real people in the real world, rather than something in a book. They also begin to make connections from this research to their own lives far from the coast.

Key words: education, coastal ecology, coastal wetland education, professional development