Improving an Undergraduate Program in Field and ExperimentalEcology

生物系平均每年有75名学生毕业，其中11名是典型的职前教师，24名正在寻求环境生物学方面的职业。此外，一些在职教师报名参加暑期实地课程和环境生物学研讨会。在过去的几年里，环境生物学专业的学生人数急剧增加，而该系现在在提供的环境课程的数量和种类以及支持这些课程的设备方面都存在不足。该项目通过将实地调查和实验室研究融入到课程活动中，使环境和生态课程现代化。该项目的主要目标是为野外站（TLES）配备现代化的生态和环境生物学设备，供本科生使用。TLES是一个教学和研究设施，由美国鱼类和野生动物管理局建立，距离主校区3.2公里。新设备允许学生在提出和回答重要的生态问题时使用各种现代生态研究技术。此外，由于靠近主校区有一个装备齐全的野外工作站，该系可以为环境生物学学生和职前教师提供宝贵的野外经验，作为常规课程的一部分。最终，这所大学为当今竞争激烈的环境生物学领域培养出训练有素的人才，并培养出受过更好的实地培训的职前教师，他们最终可能会在内陆西北地区的高中生物课程中从事更多的实地活动。此外，学生获得更多的经验，设计和开展研究，分析和展示自己的数据，这有类似的有益影响。＊

The Department of Biology graduates an average of 75 students per year, 11 of whom are typically preservice teachers and 24 of whom are seeking careers in environmental biology. Additionally, several inservice teachers enroll in summer field courses and environmental biology workshops. The number of students in the environmental biology program has increased dramatically over the past several years, and the department is now deficient with respect to the number and variety of environmental courses offered and the equipment supporting these courses. This project modernizes the environmental and ecological curriculum with a major infusion of investigative field and laboratory research into the course activities. The major objective of the project is to equip the field station (TLES) with modern ecological and environmental biology equipment for undergraduate student use. The TLES is a teaching and research facility, established with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and located 3.2 km from the main campus. The new equipment allows students to use a variety of modern ecological research techniques as they ask and answer important ecological questions. Additionally, with an equipped field station so close to the main campus, the department can provide invaluable field experience for environmental biology students and preservice teachers as part of the regular curriculum. Ultimately, the university produces better trained individuals for today's very competitive field of environmental biology and produces preservice teachers with better field training who may eventually transpire into more field activities in the high school biology curricula within the Inland Northwest. Additionally, students gain more experience designing and conducting studies and analyzing and presenting their own data, which has similar beneficial impacts. *