Site Proposal for Blandy Experimental Farm

该奖项向弗吉尼亚大学环境科学系提供资金，为本科生建立一个研究计划，在那里将教授生态学的基本原理，并详细介绍科学家增加我们对自然的理解的方法。两个主要目标将是：1)教育学生科学是一个获取证据和进行推理的过程，而不是收集一成不变的事实；2)提高科学家、专业人员和政策制定者的生态和环境素养。该计划将包括不同兴趣、背景和职业目标的学生--参与者将从大西洋中部地区的数百所学院/大学中招募。该计划的重点是测试与动植物相互作用相关的假设，这是一个具有相当大的基础和应用兴趣的主题，也是一个具有相当大启发价值的主题。学生们将在弗吉尼亚大学的生物野外站布兰迪实验农场进行现场研究，并将沉浸在一个由15至20名研究生/博士后研究人员组成的社区中。实地考察将集中在与保护有关的问题上；每周在农场举行的系列研讨会也将增加研究经验。教师工资、实验室空间和宿舍费用将作为成本分摊项目分摊。

This award provides funds to the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia to establish a research program for undergraduates where basic principles of ecology will be taught, and the methods by which scientists increase our understanding of the natural will be detailed. Two major objectives will be to: 1) teach students that science is a process of acquiring evidence and making inference, and not a collection of immutable facts; and 2) increase the ecological and environmental literacy of scientists, professionals, and policy makers. The program will include a diversity of students in terms of their interests, backgrounds, and career goals--participants will be recruited from the hundreds of colleges/universities in the mid- Atlantic area. The focus of the program is on testing hypotheses related to plant-animal interactions, a topic of considerable basic and applied interest, and one that has considerable heuristic value. Students will conduct research in a field-station setting at the Blandy Experimental Farm, a biological field station of the University of Virginia, and will be immersed in a community of 15 to 20 graduate/post-doctoral researchers. Field trips will focus on issues related to conservation; a weekly seminar series at the Farm will also add to the research experience. Faculty wages, and fees for laboratory space and dorm rooms will be contributed as cost share items.