Goals and Objectives | Plant Biology | SIU

Goals and Objectives

Problem or Question

Ecological education and the creation of an environmentally literate society has been identified as one of the most pressing needs for development in the 1990s. In higher education, undergraduate ecology and environmental science education is taught primarily through lecture, recitation or seminar. Where courses include a laboratory component much of the student experiences are through mensurative field observations or short-term manipulative experiments. This is in stark contrast to a large proportion of empirical ecological and environmental research which is based upon field-experiments and the scientific method. Further, there is an increasing reliance on long-term field experiments in the development and testing of modern ecological theory. Thus a dichotomy between teaching and research exists despite the long-held belief among educators that students learn through inquiry and the scientific method as practiced by practitioners of the discipline. We suggest that the incorporation of field experiments into the curricula will greatly benefit undergraduate students taking ecological and environmental science courses, especially pre- and in-service teachers, as they attain a better appreciation for how relevant research is undertaken.

Goals and Specific Objectives

We propose to introduce undergraduate students taking ecology and environmental science courses to the concept of experimental field research through the establishment of a series of long-term experimental study plots. Undergraduate students at all academic levels (freshmen through seniors) will be involved in numerous aspects of hypothesis formulation, experimental design, procedures of data collection, and data analysis and presentation.

General Goal

To establish a long-term field experiment that can be utilized by successive classes of students enrolled in environmental courses at SIUC.

Many of these students will be following an Environmental Studies Program for their minor, others will be life science majors, or future science teachers (Elementary, Middle or High School). The experiment will address specific ecological concepts (below) and allow students across a range of academic levels to collect a variety of types of data.

The Long-Term Experiment

Designed to address topics under the general concept of ecological succession. Short- term experiments (duration less than one semester) will be conducted by students within the long-term experimental plots. Thus, the long-term experiment will provide the context and framework for additional short-term experiments.

Pedagogical Objectives

We plan to use a long-term field experiment as a teaching tool to enable life science students to attain a number of important pedagogical objectives. A general goal is to encourage students to become more ecologically literate through a specific hands-on experience.

Students that participate in the long-term field experiment project will be able to:

1. Assess the advantages and disadvantages of different field experiment designs.
2. Understand the value and limitations of the field experiments, especially long-term experiments in testing environmental and ecological hypotheses.
3. Analyze, present and report scientific data.
4. Recognize the value of native ecosystems for scientific research.
5. Undertake a variety of methods of environmental and ecological data collection procedures.
6. Realize and appreciate the role of scientific research in understanding the natural world.
7. Integrate research data and results into an understanding of ecology and environmental science as a whole.

Ecological Objectives

The ecological objectives provide the scientific basis and conceptual framework for the project. To assist in best meeting the pedagogical objectives the ecological objectives are designed to test areas of current interest and importance in understanding the topic of succession (the process and pattern of changes following a disturbance in communities through time).

Students that participate in the long-term field experiment will be able to:

1. Describe and articulate the process of succession.
2. Design further experiments to test concepts of succession.
3. Recognize the long-term nature of successional mechanisms.
4. Identify biotic & abiotic interactions affecting succession.