Short-term study abroad experiences, those in which students are engaged for fewer than eight weeks, are the most common type of undergraduate study abroad in the United States. According to the Institute of International Education's 2017 Open Doors report, more than half of all American students who studied abroad in the 2016-17 academic year (64.4%) participated in short-term programs. We combined a 10-day study abroad experience with a semester long course that attempts to bridge the gap between application and theory and implement concepts from the 4DEE Framework. Using a multifaceted scaffolding approach to experimental design, field implementation, data collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and communication of results our aim was to increase student scientific and ecological skills and knowledge and further their global citizenship development. Our undergraduate study abroad experience at La Selva and Palo Verde Biological Stations (Costa Rica) allowed students, working in groups of two to five, to engage in authentic research experiences topically centered in ecology and conservation biology. Students’ projects covered topics such as utilization of camera traps to assess wild cat presence; soil and aquatic assessments across a range of tropical rainforest successional stages; and, beetle diversity across a range of tropical rainforest habitat types.
Results/Conclusions
Throughout the 10-day field practicum, instructors supervised daily, guided journaling and reflection activities, and oversaw all field components of data collection. Upon completion of the study abroad component of the course, the students enrolled in a semester long course aimed at data organization, analysis, interpretation, and communication of results. The 16-week semester course guides students through, data analysis, interpretation and synthesis among the dimensions of the 4DEE framework. Students gain computational and science writing skills while linking theory and application. Data formatting and processing, statistical analysis in R and multiple writing activities culminate in a final research paper. Students will present their research findings at a college wide research symposium. The international portion of the course also provided opportunities for cultural experiences. While in Costa Rica students kept daily journal entries regarding their cultural experiences. Evening group meetings facilitated discussion and sharing upon which students could further expand in their journals. Topics of discussion included the cultural experience of seeing conservation science in action in another country, the view that another culture has of scientists, as well as reflection upon the intersection of agriculture and land use management similarities and differences between the United States and Costa Rica.