Friday, August 8, 2008: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
202 A, Midwest Airlines Center
OOS 23 - Mentoring Future Ecologists at Small Liberal Arts Colleges Through Research
This organized oral session will present successful strategies for enhancing undergraduate ecology teaching and learning, and for engaging students in ecological research, while providing mechanisms for developing long-term faculty research programs at small liberal arts colleges. This collection of presentations will illustrate how various ecological systems (watershed, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, butterflies, bean beetles, forest soil nutrient cycles) are used to engage students from diverse ethnic and educational backgrounds to learn ecology, appreciate nature, and develop into effective scientists, researchers, and published authors. The research systems are of great public concern, in terms of water and air pollution control, spread of diseases, and biodiversity conservation. The faculty will show how they use these systems to develop research programs that engage students over several years, building a database that will help future ecology classes understand how ecology research is done, while developing in these students the sense that they are building a legacy for future students through their collective work. The session will include ecologists from underrepresented groups, and highlight the experience of our presenters in engaging students from all ethnic backgrounds in learning ecology and conducting ecological research. The diversity of perspectives, regional locations, and research training of the presenters will illustrate the importance of small liberal arts colleges in mentoring future ecologists. The presentations on how undergraduate students can help create and use long-term or large-scale ecological research databases that give a well-defined picture of the research system, and on how to conduct multi-year experiments and publish results with students, are especially valuable to the development of ecology faculty at small liberal arts colleges. These faculty must spend more time on teaching duties than the time required for teaching and available for research at larger institutions. The papers’ discussion of innovative ways for faculty at teaching-oriented institutions to obtain funding for collaborative ecological research will also be valuable.
Organizer:Carmen R. Cid, Eastern Connecticut State University
Moderator:Carmen R. Cid, Eastern Connecticut State University
8:00 AMOOS 23-1Linking studies of invasive species and fragmentation with the National Ecological Observatory Network to enhance research and learning at small colleges
Laurel J. Anderson, Ohio Wesleyan University, Charlene D'Avanzo, Hampshire College
8:20 AMOOS 23-2Mapping antibiotic-resistant bacteria across a landscape: A collaborative ecological experience for high school students, undergraduates, and faculty
David R. Bowne, Franklin and Marshall College, Debra L. Wohl, Elizabethtown College
8:40 AMOOS 23-3How to do collaborative watershed teaching and research at the undergraduate level using web pages and a methods e-manual
Bob R. Pohlad, Ferrum College, Carolyn L Thomas, Ferrum College
9:00 AMOOS 23-4Who's on first? how to negotiate issues about authorship and writing abilities of undergraduates when writing papers for publication
Romi Burks, Southwestern University
9:20 AMOOS 23-5Long-term ecological research at an undergraduate college: Student participation in monitoring and assessing ecosystem change
William J. Cromartie, Richard Stockton College
9:40 AM Break
9:50 AMOOS 23-6Meta-analysis as an undergraduate research experience
Max Taub, Southwestern University
10:10 AMOOS 23-7Understanding a complex system: Faculty-undergraduate collaboration in multi-year ecological research teams
Janet A. Morrison, The College of New Jersey
10:30 AMOOS 23-8Undergraduates in research: Finding benefits for both students and faculty
Ernest H. Williams, Hamilton College
10:50 AMOOS 23-9Approaches to teaching undergraduate ecology students: Using summer research experiences to develop strategies for semester-long research projects
Cris G. Hochwender, University of Evansville
11:10 AMOOS 23-10Environmental education at a small urban university: Establishing alternate end-points
William Hopper, Florida Memorial University

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See more of The 93rd ESA Annual Meeting (August 3 -- August 8, 2008)