Site Proposal for Blandy Experimental Farm

该奖项为环境部提供资金 弗吉尼亚大学的科学家们建立了一项研究 为本科生开设的课程，生态学的基本原理将 被教导，和科学家增加我们的方法， 自然的理解将被详细描述。 两大 目标是：1）教学生科学是一个过程 收集证据和进行推理，而不是收集 不可改变的事实; 2）增加生态和环境 科学家、专业人员和决策者的扫盲。 的 该计划将包括学生的多样性， 兴趣，背景和职业目标-参与者将 中期从数百所学院/大学招募 大西洋地区。 该计划的重点是测试假设 与植物和动物的相互作用有关，这是一个相当基本的话题。 和应用的兴趣，以及一个具有相当启发性的 值 学生将在野外工作站进行研究 在布兰迪实验农场，一个生物野外站， 弗吉尼亚大学，并将沉浸在一个社区的15 20名研究生/博士后研究人员。 实地考察将重点 关于与保护有关的问题;每周在 农场也将增加研究经验。 教师工资，以及 实验室空间和宿舍的费用将作为 费用分摊项目。

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.