For several years each of us taught courses in Tropical Marine Ecology using the Gerace Research Centre, San Salvador, Bahamas. The goal of our two-week field trip was to provide students with an intensive experience studying natural ecosystems. Initially, a focus was the identification of the organisms, but over time this has shifted towards helping students analyze the functional components of the systems. A second but equally important part of the experience has been based upon student research projects planned on campus, with the fieldwork and presentation of results conducted on San Salvador.
In 1997, for the first time, we tried incorporating these methods into a combined course for students from Le Moyne and Siena Colleges. Along with the educational objectives previously described, we also wanted to create a single functional research team from the two smaller groups by having students cooperate on the projects using email discussions. Later, we were able to promote a much greater level of interaction among the students prior to the field experience by using a common digital workspace (The Virtual Beach). This provided the opportunity to make common assignments and have joint discussions of those assignments, as well to allow students to prepare collaborative environmental discussions and research proposals.
We have also re-designed the manner in which the students collect their field data so as to both increase the amount of data that can be collected in their limited field time as well as to enhance the confidence of the student researchers in their abilities to do science. We have effectively moved from having each group collect their own data to having the student group serve as research managers for their project, directing the data collection efforts of their peers.
Results/Conclusions
Overall, we feel that the steps we have taken toward a joint learning experience have greatly strengthened each of our courses. Based on faculty perceptions as well as student satisfaction surveys, these changes have been successful. Students are better prepared to work together than ever before, the data collected during student research projects are more likely to be sufficient to answer the questions posed and students are more satisfied that their hard work has paid off in real results.
