Ecology laboratory courses may benefit from immersive pedagogical approaches that promote inquiry based skills, while simultaneously enhancing our understanding of ecological processes. In the University of Pittsburgh’s undergraduate Ecology Lab course, students are challenged with explaining the causes of urban forest degradation whereby forests have become depauperate and dominated by exotic invasive plant species. In addition, many urban forests are overrun with white-tailed deer. While it is sometimes clear what causes forest degradation, it is less clear why these forests are slow to recover their former biodiversity once browsing is mitigated and exotic species are extirpated. To address these issues, students form small collaborative groups and explore the primary literature to develop hypotheses to explain the long lag times that characterize biodiversity restoration (e.g., loss of pollinators). Once students develop their own hypotheses, they are provided the means to test some of these hypotheses as part of a long-term replicated field experiment whereby deer have been excluded with fences and exotic species have been removed. The students are rigorously coached through the scientific method from developing hypotheses to data collection to the completion of a scientific paper and a final class presentation modeled after talks at national scientific meetings.
Results/Conclusions
By carefully going through the scientific method from start to finish in an immersive, relevant study system, students gained invaluable problem solving and analytical skills, learned how to form viable collaborations with task sharing, and learned critical thinking skills with regard to solving a complex environmental problem. Here, we will outline the development of this approach and how to implement it for nearly 100 students in six, 3-hour laboratory sections. Based on pre- and post- assessment surveys, students who had little interest in field ecology and registered for the class to fill a requirement, expressed substantially enhanced interest in ecology and environmental science. A smaller group of students, expressed interest in field biology as a potential career versus careers within the health sciences.