Emerging tools in teaching biodiversity across disciplines

The Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners (NCEP) is a global initiative creating opportunities for the broad exchange of educational and training information and strategies among conservation educators and practitioners.  The lack of access to such resources is one of the greatest obstacles to building capacity in biodiversity conservation.  To overcome this obstacle NCEP has created over 60 biodiversity conservation curricular modules that emphasize active student learning and the application of critical thinking to conservation problems. Three of these modules were tested (What is Biodiversity, Why is it Important and Threats to Biodiversity) at eight diverse institutions in a range of undergraduate courses with varying class sizes.  To assess the impact, we pre- and post-tested student biodiversity content knowledge and attitudes using the Student Assessment Learning Gains (SALG) and the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP).  Analysis assessed learning gains among gender, ethnicity, class standing, and student’s major. We predicted significant learning gains in content and changes in ecological attitudes and worldviews.  Results demonstrate how these modules impact learning and attitudes. Additionally, results provide recommendations for effective teaching in the classroom for conservation education.