Archbold Project FIRST
February Workshop:
Designing institutional team field exercises for use at Archbold

"Faculty workshops in field
ecology at Archbold:
an opportunity to enrich the
teaching of ecology for your
undergraduate students"

Project First at Archbold Biological Station
Designing institutional team field exercises for use at Archbold
Institutional teams were asked to design a group field project that each faculty member could use in a course they teach - or some departmental/school program where it could be used. The aim was to draw in team expertise and think of an interdisciplinary project - to later introduce the evaluation method of concept mapping. We requested that faculty lay out their goals for this project - in terms of content and in terms of student learning, and identify in which classes they wanted to use this project (allowing us to later evaluate project usefulness). We asked them to consider how they would evaluate whether they had achieved their teaching goals. Our hope was that all institutional teams would benefit because we get five ideas for new projects, and these could also form the basis for curriculum ideas for visiting classes from elsewhere. We also asked that they list anticipated problems, where there might be resistance on the part of students or on the part of other faculty/institutions, and other logistical challenges.

Activity:

  • Draft out a rough design for an inquiry-based, field oriented exercise which the institutional team group could use individually, or as a group, in a course or program, preferably tackling concept(s) that students find difficult to grasp
  • identify which courses, and explain how fits into the course,. Hopefully a project involving the whole team's interests. Specify goals.
  • List anticipated problems
  • Consider which cooperative learning ideas to employ
  • Consider evaluation methods appropriate to show if met goals.
  • Prepare a poster to illustrate the outline of your field exercise. 3 minute presentation, 2 min Q & A.
  • Complete template form provided which outlines project.
  • On return in May conduct field trial using team members and one outside observer in implementing exercises.