PARENT SESSION
Poster Session 16: Ecology Education
Tuesday, August 9, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall 220 A-E, Level 2, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Out standing in the field- but are they? Retaining field-based labs in ecology courses.
Zeman, Janel*,1, Hunt, Jodee1, Shontz, John1, Dunn, James1, 1 Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan
ABSTRACT- Ecology is the discipline that seeks to understand how living organisms and environments interact, yet increasingly introductory courses fail to provide students with direct experiences of nature. Shrinking budgets, expanding curricular demands, and limited faculty resources constrain our ability to offer field-based introductory ecology courses. Many of the larger universities long ago eliminated the laboratory component of their courses or made them optional. Others offer laboratories, but limit sessions to computer simulations or other indoor activities that serve as proxy for studying ecosystems first-hand. For more than a decade, Grand Valley State University (GVSU), located near Grand Rapids, has been Michigan's fastest-growing state university. Enrollment has more than doubled since 1994, and GVSU currently serves more than 22,000 students drawn primarily from west Michigan. Despite experiencing growth pains as the university morphed rapidly from a small- to a medium-sized institution while the state experienced economic decline, we retain a broad core curriculum characterized by hands-on laboratories. All students majoring in Biology (with nine emphases, including secondary education) or Natural Resources Management (housed in the Biology Department) must complete General Ecology, a sophomore-level course featuring a field-based laboratory. Michigan's strongly seasonal climate limits offerings of general ecology to summer and fall sections with a total enrollment of approximately 200 students dispersed among eight lab sections. Because students must master a variety of field techniques, collect copious original data, and learn scientific writing during the lab, instructors are almost exclusively Ph.D.-holding faculty. Field projects and writing assignments are designed in concert to optimize student learning about fundamental ecological principles, scientific writing, and presentation and interpretation of data. This structure allows a single course to introduce students to ecology, technical field, laboratory and computer skills, and scientific writing. The efficiency of the structure allows us to continue offering introductory ecology where ecological processes occur- in nature.
Key words: general ecology, undergraduate education, field-based laboratories