Workshops at the 2002 UENR

Using the Forest Vegetation Simulator as a Teaching Tool

John D. Shaw — Sat, 16 Mar 2002 09:00:00 PST

The Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) is a tree-level, spatially non-explicit growth model. It is an outgrowth of the Stand Prognosis model that the U.S. Forest Service began developing in the late 1960s. Local variants of FVS now cover most of the forest types of the United States. Development of two complementary programs, Suppose and the Stand Visualization System (SVS), have opened the possibilities for using FVS as a teaching tool in forestry classes.

Structured Educational Design Workshop

Pierre Zundel et al. — Sat, 16 Mar 2002 10:00:00 PST

Effective educational design occurs when there is congruity between four components of the educational system: (a) the educational outcomes sought, (b) the educational program, (c) the student, and (d) the teacher. This workshop will engage up to 20 participants to help them take a structured approach to designing individual courses and streams of courses to achieve given educational goals for specific groups of students. Participants will be guided through an adaptive management process that leads to progressive improvement of educational designs.

Integrating Spatial Information Technologies into Natural Resources Curricula

Heather Cheshire et al. — Sat, 16 Mar 2002 11:00:00 PST

Spatial information technologies increasingly are used in forestry and natural resources management and research. Our long-term goal is to provide students with hands-on exposure to these technologies from the moment they enter their undergraduate natural resource curricula until they graduate, by integrating spatial information technology into a number of key courses. We have designed a prototype laboratory sequence in which students use geographic information systems, global positioning systems, and statistical sampling techniques in an integrated process to estimate forest basal area. Participants in this workshop will experience our approach from the students’ perspectives. We will present our rationale for each step in the sequence and discuss with participants methods for improving and extending the concept. Workshop participants will have half of the time for hands-on activities interspersed with discussion. Participants will be invited to discuss and/or demonstrate activities that they have used in their classes.

Encouraging Critical Thinking about Advocacy

Jim Berkson et al. — Fri, 15 Mar 2002 09:00:00 PST

Advocacy is a common topic in the literature. All graduates in natural resource sciences will have to face decisions regarding advocacy at some time. Unfortunately, we do little to prepare them for those decisions. Much of the literature says either we all must be advocates or none of us should be advocates. The reality is that there are jobs for people who want to be advocates and jobs for people who don’t. It’s crucial that students start to think critically about the role they want advocacy to play in their future. In this workshop we will introduce the participants to an exercise that quickly moves students beyond avoiding advocacy to a point where they relate it to their own values. Objectives are to (1) Discuss how advocacy is portrayed in the literature; (2) Discuss how students think about advocacy; (3) Discuss what should be our goals regarding advocacy and students; (4) Present methods and exercises to encourage students to think critically about advocacy; and (5) Discuss alternative approaches. Audience participation will be ensured because we will break into small groups (about four people per group) and do an exercise requiring everyone’s involvement. As this is such a controversial topic, it is bound to bring nearly everyone into the discussion. The discussions will be facilitated to encourage everyone’s participation.

Teaching and Learning in Context in Natural Resources Science and Management

Virginia S. Lee et al. — Fri, 15 Mar 2002 09:30:00 PST

A vast body of research from education, psychology, and neuroscience suggests that learning is highly context dependent, acquired through experience and involvement in real-world situations. In contrast, traditional teaching methods often disassociate learning from meaningful contexts, and students spend more time passively watching and listening than actually doing. Exclusive use of methods like these is particularly inappropriate in natural resources science and management, because of the professional orientation of these curricula. This workshop will explore three related teaching strategies that promote learning through engagement in realworld contexts and situations: role-play, case studies, and problem-based learning. Participants will identify what learning outcomes each strategy best facilitates; learn how to plan and implement each strategy, including proper facilitation techniques; evaluate the applicability of each strategy to their own courses; and compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of each strategy.

Modeling Interactive Skills: Assessing Student Learning Outcomes And Pre-Professional Development in Forestry

Jan Thompson et al. — Fri, 15 Mar 2002 10:00:00 PST

Fostering Creativity in the Environmental Classroom: Seeking Creative Solutions through Active Participation

Carole F. Robinson et al. — Fri, 15 Mar 2002 10:30:00 PST

Complex environmental issues and constant change call for creative and innovative solutions. We believe critical thinking in the area of environmental studies is imperative both in and out of the classroom. Exercise: “Creatively Controlling Campus Crud: Design a Better Pizza Box.” This is a multifaceted exercise that we created and currently use in the core environmental studies class in the Department of Resource Development at Michigan State University. This exercise provides space for creative approaches to the complex environmental issue of waste on the campus. Discarded pizza boxes are the number one cause of waste on the MSU campus. Their volume and the contamination of the cardboard with food waste cause the problem. We have created this exercise to show how students contribute to a significant environmental problem, yet we provide them the space to offer their own solutions to the problem. They then quickly present their designs and thoughts to their colleagues in the class. This exercise provides space for lateral thinking: The worldview of students is represented in how they frame the problem from actually designing a new pizza box to questioning consumerism (concrete to abstract). Students begin to understand how they contribute to environmental degradation by their own worldviews and behaviors. Students also discover how they can have impact and develop innovative solutions. This exercise also gives students practice in first critically examining their own worldviews and values, observing creativity in action, working with others to frame the issue, and thinking of creative ways to address complex environmental issues in a safe space.