Enhancing Undergraduate Participatory Research in Environmental Science with Field-Based Data Acquisition Equipment

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Teaching the theoretical interrelationships between biological, physical, and chemical systems to undergraduate environmental science students without practical field-based research to demonstrate these connections presents a pedagogic problem in the environmental sciences.This project is using TI Calculator Based Labs (CBL) coupled with hand-held calculators and analog and digital Vernier probes. The memory capacity of the calculators allows up to 10,000 data points to be logged from five probes simultaneously. Although designed for the lab, these data loggers and probes are being used in the field in this project. By deploying a network of data loggers and a variety of probes to collect data in a wide range of environmental parameters (precipitation, potention metric surface elevation, dissolved oxygen, dissolved ions, light intensity, pH, humidity, temperature), extensive data sets can be developed and spatial and temporal changes in conditions can be assessed, interpreted, and modeled by the students. The approach of using a network of data loggers has been incorporated as an integral part of two scheduled interdisciplinary, team-taught academic programs offered during the two-year grant period. Students, ranging from freshmen to seniors, are designing research projects, deploying the data loggers, collecting and assessing the data, and constructing conceptual and computer models which mimic the natural systems. This participatory research is helping the students develop their critical thinking and quantitative skills and leading to a more comprehensive understanding of natural systems. This approach follows the recommendations in Ann McNeal and Charlene D'Avanzo, "Student Active Science, Models of Innovation in College Science Teaching," (Fort Worth, TX: Saunders College Publishing, 1997).