Improving an Undergraduate Program in Field and ExperimentalEcology

生物系每年平均毕业75名学生，其中11人是典型的兼职教师，其中24人正在寻求环境生物学的职业生涯。 此外，一些在职教师报名参加夏季实地课程和环境生物学讲习班。 在环境生物学课程的学生人数在过去几年中急剧增加，该部门现在相对于提供的环境课程的数量和种类以及支持这些课程的设备不足。 该项目使环境和生态课程现代化，将调查领域和实验室研究主要注入课程活动。 该项目的主要目标是为野外站配备现代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，与美国鱼类和野生动物管理局建立，距离主校区3.2公里。 新设备允许学生使用各种现代生态研究技术，因为他们问和回答重要的生态问题。 此外，与装备的外地站如此接近主校区，该部门可以提供宝贵的实地经验，为环境生物学的学生和实习教师作为常规课程的一部分。 最终，该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，并培养出具有更好实地培训的副教授，他们最终可能会在西北内陆的高中生物课程中参与更多的实地活动。 此外，学生获得更多的经验，设计和进行研究，分析和提出自己的数据，这具有类似的有益影响。 *

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. *