Developing an Integrated Curriculum in Ecology

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Biological Sciences (61) This project is integrating experiences in ecology in the Biology department, which has a strong representation of ecology in its course offerings and faculty, to address two deficiencies in the present curriculum: the current course offerings are treated as separate units, and the laboratory experiences are focused on observational studies. The project is modifying the current curriculum to increase the cohesiveness and continuity of experiences for students and to introduce a more mechanistic, experimental approach to ecological issues. This is done through the presentation of important topics (such as experimental design and statistical analysis) in all ecology courses, through the sharing of ecological data collected from common field sites, and through more laboratory experiments emphasizing physiological responses of organisms to their environments. The ideas for this project have been adapted from two sources. First, Lloyd was involved as a teaching assistant in an effort to improve the global change curriculum at the University of Arizona. In conjunction with Dr. Lisa Graumlich, she helped revise a one-semester, upper-division course in global environmental change that integrated active learning pedagogies and opportunities for student-driven investigations. Second, Lloyd's involvement as a researcher in the NSF-funded LTER program (at the Bonanza Creek LTER) led to an idea, developed jointly by Lloyd and Dr. Steve Trombulak of Middlebury to organize the lab curricula of ecology courses around a set of shared field sites, much as research at an LTER site is integrated around a set of shared research sites. Through progressive education about ecological principles and methods and through numerous research experiences in the laboratories of all ecology courses, students are gaining an appreciation of ecology as a broad and interdisciplinary science. The goals are to provide a more coherent and comprehensive coverage of ecology in these courses, to present ecology as a more mechanistic and experimental science, to increase the number of students choosing to do ecologically-based independent research and senior theses, and to encourage students to continue on in ecology-related graduate programs and careers.