Thursday, June 8, 2017
11:00 - 12:30

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11:00 - 11:15: / 301A SWIMMING UPSTREAM AND MOVING MOUNTAINS: COLLABORATIVE TEACHING AS A MEANS TO TRANSFORM UNDERGRADUATE STEM COURSES

6/08/2017  |   11:00 - 11:15   |  301A

SWIMMING UPSTREAM AND MOVING MOUNTAINS: COLLABORATIVE TEACHING AS A MEANS TO TRANSFORM UNDERGRADUATE STEM COURSES Transforming undergraduate STEM education is vital to maintaining international competitiveness and increasing entry into and persistence in STEM majors. Countless calls for change have come from prestigious scientific organizations, and millions of dollars of funding have been directed at reform. Yet, very few faculty have actually transformed their courses. This presents a puzzling question: why aren’t smart people making necessary changes? Perhaps one reason even well-informed faculty don’t transform their courses is the lack of time, knowledge and/or rewards to initiate and implement reform. But more resources are not always available, thus, faculty must leverage their most valuable resources—their colleagues—and create high-impact collaborative learning environments for themselves. These environments, which are known to foster powerful student learning and outcomes, can also powerfully foster faculty innovation.

Alicia Slater (Primary Presenter/Author), Stetson University , aslater@stetson.edu;


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11:15 - 11:30: / 301A AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPES AS LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS TO INFORM UNDERSTANDING OF WATERSHEDS

6/08/2017  |   11:15 - 11:30   |  301A

AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPES AS LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS TO INFORM UNDERSTANDING OF WATERSHEDS Advancements in technology provide new opportunities to engage students and others in nature-based, non-formal educational experiences, either through direct contact with a place, or through mediated experiences. Mobile technologies and applications are making it possible to stream live audio and video content from outdoor research sites through the web to a variety of audiences. Here we highlight examples of ways that we are sharing information and knowledge about water resources in agricultural and natural systems in Nebraska, as well as the process of science and opportunities for careers in science. This includes a partnership among the Platte Basin Timelapse (PBT) project, a web-based platform that provides a way for people to interact with time-lapse imagery of landscapes through digital storytelling, and Streaming Science, an interactive electronic field trip produced and streamed via iPads. We also describe field-based experiential learning opportunities for middle and high school teachers linked to PBT and Streaming Science. Overall, our efforts focus on creating and developing visual, scientific, and educational encounter experiences that help people better understand the interconnectivity of human and natural systems within watersheds.

Mary Harner (Primary Presenter/Author), University of Nebraska at Kearney, harnermj@unk.edu;


Jamie Loizzo ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Nebraska - Lincoln, jloizzo@unl.edu;


Keith Geluso ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Nebraska at Kearney, gelusok1@unk.edu;


Michael Forsberg ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Nebraska - Lincoln, forsberg.mike@gmail.com;


Michael Farrell ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Nebraska - Lincoln, mfarrell@netad.unl.edu;


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11:30 - 11:45: / 301A AN APPROACH TO TEACHING URBAN ECOLOGY TO STUDENTS OF THE ARTS USING LEAF PACKS.

6/08/2017  |   11:30 - 11:45   |  301A

AN APPROACH TO TEACHING URBAN ECOLOGY TO STUDENTS OF THE ARTS USING LEAF PACKS. Science courses are a new thing at RISD, and we are constantly experimenting with them, so to speak! Involving some artistic expression is often used—it is a method of communicating one’s understanding of concepts and analyses through visual, not verbal, means. For three years I have used leaf packs to conduct a modified version of the experimental protocol as a semester project in my course, Urban Ecology: How Wildlife Interacts with an Urbanizing Landscape. Constructing, setting up and collecting the leaf packs are hands-on activities that these students relish. The goal is to take the data that we collect and process as a class and, in small groups, spatially analyze the land-use surrounding the spots where we sampled. The spatial analyses must be quantitative, but are done in different ways, depending upon each group’s consensus on how to categorize land-use and quantify it—with or without any technological tools. They consider both elements together to form a hypothesis and ultimately a conclusion about the impacts of land-use on adjacent aquatic communities. Ultimately, we hope to produce infographics of our results for outreach programs.

Maria Aliberti-Lubertazzi (Primary Presenter/Author), RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN, MALIBERT@RISD.EDU;


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11:45 - 12:00: / 301A PAGING THE PRE-MEDS: ENGAGING STUDENTS IN FRESHWATER ECOLOGY THAT ARE PURSUING HEALTH CAREERS

6/08/2017  |   11:45 - 12:00   |  301A

PAGING THE PRE-MEDS: ENGAGING STUDENTS IN FRESHWATER ECOLOGY THAT ARE PURSUING HEALTH CAREERS Many undergraduates aspire to health careers particularly because these jobs are often in-demand, well paid, and perceived as a noble profession. For a biology degree many university programs require their students to take a wide variety of courses which may include ecology or freshwater ecology. While pre-health students often are highly motivated and competitive, they are not necessarily engaged if the course material does not seem relevant to their goals. Teaching these students can be challenging, but also rewarding if we can broaden their horizons and make connections to aquatic sciences. Part of this process can include introducing them to career opportunities they might not have been aware of before. In this presentation I discuss strategies I use at a Kentucky liberal-arts college to engage students considering health careers. We make connections between freshwater concepts to applied topics in public health, and develop fundamental research skills in the classroom, lab, and field. In addition, invited guest speakers from federal and state agencies, NGOs, and extension faculty of University of Kentucky have sparked some students to contemplate alternative career opportunities.

Mark Galatowitsch (Primary Presenter/Author), Centre College, mark.galatowitsch@centre.edu;


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12:00 - 12:15: / 301A PUTTING YOUR LAB CLASSES (AND RESOURCES) TO WORK FOR YOU: AN EXAMPLE OF A MOLECULAR ECOLOGY COURSE UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH MODULE

6/08/2017  |   12:00 - 12:15   |  301A

PUTTING YOUR LAB CLASSES (AND RESOURCES) TO WORK FOR YOU: AN EXAMPLE OF A MOLECULAR ECOLOGY COURSE UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH MODULE Primarily undergraduate institutions have variable expectations for faculty as teacher-scholars. The term teacher-scholar may simply reflect faculty utilizing scholarly expertise to enrich teaching. However, increasingly more often, this term refers to a fusion of teaching and research accompanied by expectations of assessment. Course undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) provide authentic opportunities to engage students in faculty research, providing a “high impact” practice (HIP) measureable by multiple metrics. The nature of aquatic fieldwork may not always lend itself to class participation (~ 16 people), but the rise of molecular ecology applications to aquatic science creates new opportunities to develop teacher-scholars. In this case study, I paired two HIPs, faculty-student collaborative research and CUREs, to investigate identity and distribution of native apple snails (Pomacea spp.) in an upper level invertebrate ecology class. To assess the impact of class-incorporated research, students will complete nationally recognized pre- and post-surveys about their CURE experiences and in-class surveys on pedagogical practices. This talk will highlight the CURE goals of increasing student understanding of species concepts, introducing applications of molecular ecology to aquatic science, developing molecular skills and offering students opportunities to contribute data to on-going research projects.

Romi Burks (Primary Presenter/Author), Department of Biology, Southwestern University, Georgetown, TX, USA, burksr@southwestern.edu;


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12:15 - 12:30: / 301A FRESHWATER FOUNDATIONS: INTEGRATING RESEARCH INTO THE UNDERGRADUATE CLASSROOM AT A PUBLIC TEACHING INSTITUTION IN SOUTH DAKOTA

6/08/2017  |   12:15 - 12:30   |  301A

FRESHWATER FOUNDATIONS: INTEGRATING RESEARCH INTO THE UNDERGRADUATE CLASSROOM AT A PUBLIC TEACHING INSTITUTION IN SOUTH DAKOTA Our freshwater future is challenged by issues including climate change, invasive species, habitat modification, among others. Considering these threats, it is imperative to educate the next generation of freshwater scientists in their role in reversing these threats and to provide them with tools needed to be successful researchers. Integrating meaningful research experiences within the undergraduate classroom is a powerful way to help students become comfortable with scientific research and can simultaneously inform them of the challenges facing freshwater ecosystems. This involves minimizing “cookie-cutter” labs and memorization of facts and maximizing open-ended, inquiry-based activities that foster engagement, critical-thinking, and understanding key concepts. With regards to freshwater science, this involves getting students excited about field and lab work by bringing them into aquatic habitats to become familiar with sample sites, formulating relevant questions, collecting samples, and later returning to the lab to analyze, interpret, and present results – thus, seeing a project through from inception to completion. While these activities can be demanding on instructors, strong students may be enticed to seek out longer-term research opportunities with faculty, forming mutually beneficial research relationships.

Alyssa Anderson (Primary Presenter/Author), Southwest Minnesota State University, alyssa.anderson@smsu.edu;
Dr. Alyssa Anderson received her PhD in Entomology from the University of Minnesota in 2012. She is an Associate Professor of Biology at Southwest Minnesota State University, teaching several ecology and zoology-themed courses. Anderson’s primary research interests include studying life-history and ecological importance of winter-active insects, especially Chironomidae, as well as Chironomidae taxonomy and systematics.

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