Teaching Foundations of Ecology to Freshmen – An evolving student-led discussion approach

Background/Question/Methods

In graduate school, did you ever wish you’d read all of the Foundations of Ecology papers so you would understand what people were talking about?  That is the goal behind this class, to give freshmen at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY, the chance to read the Foundations papers and look at the emerging field of ecology from its origin to the present day.  However, the seminal papers in Foundations challenge any graduate student, so how do you get freshmen to engage with these papers?  I wanted to investigate whether giving background knowledge or giving students leadership of discussion led to an increase in their engagement and, ultimately, their understanding of core ecological concepts.   Surveys of the students were done halfway through the semester and at the end of the semester to determine the level of student engagement with the material.  My hypothesis is that for those topics where students are given some background information and lead a discussion session will result in the strongest engagement with ecological concepts

Results/Conclusions

The intial results of these surveys indicate that the combination of short ecology lectures combined with student led-discussion have increased student comprerhension and engagement with ecological topics. The survey looked at retention of information and the ability to apply Foundation concepts to modern ecological issues.  The comparison with the final survey will be analyzed at the end of the spring semester.  The results will be presented during the conference and recommendations for future pedagogical methods discussed.