Wetlands Ecology and Human Impacts Lab: Connecting Students with Their Local Environment
Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2019, Volume 40
Samantha Herrmann & Isaac Ligocki
Abstract
How do you get biology non-major students interested in ecosystems and apply biology concepts to their own local environment? The Wetlands Ecology and Human Impacts lab was designed to meet the needs of general biology instructors who wanted to take students out of the classroom and help them learn more about their own local ecosystem. This lab is broken up into multiple parts, during which students will visit several nearby locations to learn about ongoing ecological research, the function of local ecosystems, and how human impacts can disrupt those functions. Students start by visiting sites that are a part of a current research project. Students will explore the sites, make observations, formulate hypotheses, and make predictions about the research. They will then examine animal specimens of local wildlife, consider the ecophysiology of these specimens, and discuss how human behavior can impact local wildlife. Students will be introduced to at least one invasive species and contemplate the ways this organism is disruptive and the challenges we face in attempting to remove it. Finally, students will explore a local water system and consider how humans have altered that system and why. In this workshop, we will focus on local wetland ecosystems and have a strong emphasis on invasive species, although this lab is designed to be easily modified to fit the needs of instructors in other parts of the world. Although this lab can be taught at any point, it is an effective way to culminate an ecology unit and help students make connections between different ecological concepts.
Keywords: ecophysiology, invasive species, ecosystem, wetland ecology, community interactions
