Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology (TIEE):Developing Web-and CD-ROM Based Educational Material through the ESA

Hampshire College, Amherst MA

Investigators

Abstract

Biological Sciences (61) A recent Ecological Society of America (ESA) survey shows that students are passive learners in most ecology courses. To address this problem, this project is developing a CD-ROM disseminated by ESA that helps faculty (1) integrate the teaching of ecological concepts with suitable student-active approaches and (2) reflect on changes with formative evaluation and possibly publish peer-reviewed innovations of their own suitable for Promotion and Tenure portfolios. The project is building on ESA's foundation and expertise in ecological education nationwide. The project is creating a peer review structure for publishing, on the Web and CD-ROM, inquiry-based "Experiments" and "Issues" for lecture/ discussion that are integrated within innovative pedagogy. The "Experiments" component are field or lab activities for student-directed research inquiries that teach key concepts and knowledge construction. Ecological Content, Science Skills, and Pedagogical Methods key words are hot-linked. The "Issues" component has the same structure and includes topical issues based on ecological concepts and high quality, accessible data. "Issues" are being designed for large non-lab lecture-based courses. The project will give a workshop at the ESA's August 2000 annual meeting to instruct faculty from diverse institutions about student-active teaching and use of the CD-ROM and web materials. They will evaluate these products in the workshop and over the academic year by using them in courses and communicating via the web. This workshop will be a prototype for a train-the trainer model of faculty professional development.