Over the past several decades, academic curricula have offered diminishing exposure to natural history and field experiences in ecology. This is part of a larger trend of increasing disconnection between society and nature, which, among other problems, may result in environmental policy decisions that don’t adequately incorporate an understanding of the ecosystems being impacted. Recently, there has been a concerted effort among some ecologists to reintroduce natural history into standard ecology curricula. As part of this effort, I developed and taught a course for two years in which students confront landscape puzzles in the field and then explore multiple layers – from geology to community composition to land use – to solve the mysteries. Based on this experience, I have written a book, to be published next year by Yale University Press, that teaches basic principles of environmental science through the lens of field natural history experiences.
Results/Conclusions
This teaching format – where we take a whole-landscape view and proceed with problem-based learning – is extremely successful at engaging students, and offers a model for other courses. These may be either as entire field-intensive courses, or as supplemental components of traditional ecology courses. The narrative approach also promises a strong capacity to convey basic field sense to the broader public so that future decisions may be more grounded in a full understanding of the landscape.