Integrating Spatial and Temporal Variability in Ecology Laboratories

实地研究与典型的实验室研究有着根本的不同。学生需要收集的数据往往表现出随机变化或每日和季节性趋势。在一天的一个时间拍一张“快照”，除了简单地演示一种技术之外，通常没有什么用处。此外，感兴趣的环境通常离校园有一段距离。该项目的目标是加强生态学实验室，让学生观察，质疑，假设，设计和研究现实世界的生态问题。这将通过将计算机化环境监测设备纳入现有的实验室工作来实现。 威斯康星大学密尔沃基分校生物科学系在校园内拥有先进的实验室设施，并通过UWM五大湖研究中心和UWM野外站获得各种各样的野外场地。然而，由于环境测量和监测设备过时或根本不存在，我们在与大学生进行有意义的实地实验室方面的能力受到严重限制。此外，为了充分实施以研究为基础的方法来教授生态学实验室，我们必须获得灵活性，以收集更多种类的空间和时间尺度上的数据。我们目前没有设备来收集适当类型的数据，让学生都问，然后试图回答有意义的科学问题，在我们的生态实验室。所要求的仪器包括16个陆地微气候记录站、6个溪流水化学多探头和计算机系统，以访问和分析这些单位收集的数据。这个设备将允许学生在学期初通过询问和测试生态假设来跟踪最初的观察结果。除了在UWM的其他课程中使用外，数据和项目描述将在课程网站上提供给其他大学和高中使用。

Field research is fundamentally different from typical laboratory research. The data that students need to collect often exhibit stochastic variation or daily and seasonal trends. Taking a 'snapshot" on a single day at a single time is often of little use beyond simple demonstration of a technique. In addition, the environments of interest are usually some distance from campus. The goal of this project is to enhance Ecology laboratories and allow students to observe, question, hypothesize, design, and research real-world ecological problems . This will be accomplished by the incorporation of computerized environmental monitoring equipment into existing laboratory exercises. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Department of Biological Sciences possesses advanced laboratory facilities on campus, and has access to a wonderful variety of field sites through the UWM Center for Great Lakes Studies and UWM Field Station. However, we are severely handicapped in our abilities to carry out meaningful field laboratories with undergraduates because of out-dated or non-existent environmental measurement and monitoring equipment. Furthermore, in order to fully implement a research-based approach to teaching ecology laboratories, we must acquire the flexibility to gather data on a greater variety of spatial and temporal scales. We do not presently possess the equipment to collect the appropriate types of data to allow students to both ask and then attempt to answer meaningful scientific questions in our ecology labs. Instrumentation requested includes 16 terrestrial microclimate recording stations, 6 stream water chemistry multiprobes, and computer systems to access and analyze the data collected by these units. This equipment will allow students to follow up on initial observations early in the semester by asking and testing ecological hypotheses during the rest of the term. In addition to being used y other courses at UWM the data and project descriptions will be available on the class web site for use by other universities and high schools.