{"id":6340,"date":"2011-04-29t08:45:05","date_gmt":"2011-04-29t14:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/?p=6340"},"modified":"2011-04-28t08:48:53","modified_gmt":"2011-04-28t14:48:53","slug":"teaching-outside-the-classroom-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/2011\/04\/teaching-outside-the-classroom-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"teaching outside the classroom – part one"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

by john morrell<\/strong>
\ngraduate teaching fellow, cft<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/strong>on april 5, 2011, the 2022年世界杯中国小组赛积分 hosted a \u201cconversation on teaching\u201d on the topic of \u201cteaching outside the classroom.\u201d\u00a0 this is the first installment of a two-part blog post covering the observations made by two panelists \u2013 steve baskauf from biology and david furbish from earth and environmental sciences \u2013 as they reflected on their experiences teaching courses that involve a field component.<\/em><\/p>\n

biology lecturer steve baskauf<\/strong> described a long-term invasive species removal and vegetation sampling project that he and his students have conducted at the nearby warner parks.\u00a0 baskauf teaches several sections of an introduction to biology lab course, often with more than 60 students in each section.\u00a0 baskauf began these field trips as a service-learning project in 2003-2004.\u00a0 he brought his students to the parks to remove bush honeysuckle, a particularly abundant invasive plant species in the park.<\/p>\n

in 2008, baskauf brought another group of students to the park to investigate the sites where his students had removed the honeysuckle.\u00a0 the density of honeysuckle plants was 14 times greater in unremoved areas than in the areas where students had worked to remove the plants.\u00a0 the experience gave students exposure to sampling techniques, and in designing this stage of the project, baskauf suggested that he benefitted from refining data collection techniques for a large group of students.<\/p>\n

beginning in 2009, baskauf began a more controlled experiment to replicate his previous work and to gather publishable data.\u00a0 in 2009, students collected baseline data, including age analyses of the honeysuckle plants, and began a new removal project.\u00a0 baskauf expects the project to continue until 2015.\u00a0 conducted over the course of twelve years, his project models a long-term evolutionary trajectory for field projects in the natural sciences \u2013 from service-learning project to data collection project to controlled experiment.<\/p>\n

\"\"with such large classes, baskauf has several tas to help run the labs.\u00a0 he pointed to the value of these tas and also to the importance of proper preparation so that the lab can run smoothly.\u00a0 baskauf\u00a0 suggested that the interpersonal dimensions of what happens outdoors are similar in many respects to the interpersonal dimensions of an indoor lab setting.\u00a0 in this sense, the extra thought that goes into designing effective field experiences has applications in the lab setting as well.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

baskauf argued that fieldwork is a part of the basic grounding that a well-rounded biologist ought to have.\u00a0 although it can sometimes seem old fashioned in today\u2019s world of molecular science, baskauf argued that biology students should still know what a plant looks like and how to use a microscope.<\/p>\n

on these field trips, baskauf argues, students learn about invasive species in ways that they cannot appreciate from a classroom.\u00a0 removing one bush honeysuckle plant from the ground can take several students.\u00a0 working on the removal project, students get a physical sense of how bad the problem is and how difficult it can be to solve.<\/p>\n

baskauf shared some thoughts on the difficulties he faced in designing these field trips, as well as methods of assessment that he has found effective:<\/p>\n

problems faced:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n