Interfacing a Microcomputer and Telemetry Equipment for Undergraduate Field Studies in Animal Ecology and Ethology

通过这笔赠款提供的计算机自动远程监测设备，阿肯色州理工大学野生动物生物学系在校园附近一个200英亩的户外实验室创建了一个设施，用于记录和分析配备无线电设备的动物的活动。该设施将为生态学、动物行为、渔业和野生动物管理课程的学生提供机会，学习该地区动物的日常和季节性活动模式、活动、栖息地使用、领地、分散和社会组织。将为该设施购买的仪器包括一个集成的无线电遥测系统，用于发送和接收每种动物的位置和活动，以及一个接口微型计算机，用于数据存储和分析。使用遥测-计算机系统，结合传统的野生动物观察方法，将提供一个独特的机会，以实地动态的、以问题为导向的学习体验来补充课堂学习。除了在普通本科课程中使用外，该设施还将满足参加在职研讨会的当地高中生物教师、参加个人定向研究项目的高年级学生以及参加ATU科学项目的当地高中生的需求。这一相对低成本的努力有望对该机构的动物生态学和行为学教学产生巨大影响，并对当地高中的生物课程产生宝贵的溢出效益。

With computer-automated telemonitoring equipment provided through this grant, the Wildlife Biology faculty of the Arkansas Tech University has created a facility for recording and analyzing the activities of radio- equipped animals at a 200-acre outdoor laboratory adjacent to the campus. The facility will provide students in ecology, animal behavior, and fisheries and wildlife management courses an opportunity to study daily and seasonal activity patterns, movements, habitat use, territoriality, dispersion, and social organization of the animals inhabiting this area. Instruments to be purchased for the facility include an integrated radio-telemetry system for the transmission and reception of each animal's location and activity, and an interfaced microcomputer for data storage and analysis. Use of the telemetry- computer system, in concert with traditional methods of wildlife observation, will provide a unique opportunity to supplement classroom learning with a dynamic, problem-oriented learning experience in the field. In addition to use in regular undergraduate courses, the facility will serve the needs of local high school biology teachers enrolled in in- service workshops, of upper-division students enrolled in individual directed-research projects, and of local area high school students participating in ATU's "gifted and talented" science program. This relatively low-cost effort promises to have an enormous impact upon the teaching of animal ecology and ethology in this institution, and to have a valuable spillover benefit for biology programs in the local high schools.