Field equipment, field sites, teacher workshops, and/or online resources: What does it take to promote field ecology experiences for high school students?

Background/Question/Methods

Ecology in high schools in southern New Mexico and western Texas is often taught exclusively from a textbook, removing the excitement and real-world context that attracts many to the field. Considerable research points to the effectiveness of teaching using “enhanced context” strategies, such as taking students on field experiences and engaging them in authentic research. Nonetheless, numerous barriers prevent these strategies from being implemented. For the past three years, the Jornada Basin LTER has worked with four other LTER sites to implement teacher professional development opportunities (for teachers and now also for other professional development providers) that encourage high school teachers to engage their students in field work. Through a series of focus groups, individual interviews, and classroom observations, staff determined which components of the program (e.g., loans of field equipment, easy access to field sites, online background information and statistical programs) were most important for encouraging field ecology. Best practices are especially important in this border region where more than 70% of students are Hispanic, a group traditionally underrepresented in ecology careers.

Results/Conclusions

While all resources were used by the high school teachers, the workshop and access to field equipment were ranked as most important. Teachers reported a desire to take students on field trips to remote sites to collect data, but listed bus costs and pressure from administrators as two of the most important reasons why field trips were often not possible. Many of the teachers had incorporated ecological studies done in the schoolyard (with equipment borrowed from the LTER site).