Concurrent Breakout Sessions at the 2012 UENR Conference

Supporting Fisheries Undergraduate Education with Realistic Laboratory Exercises and Research Experience

Christopher A. Myrick et al. — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 14:45:00 PDT

The financial support U.S. institutions of higher education receive from non-tuition sources for undergraduate programs has been declining, and therefore, many institutions have sought to streamline their programs to reduce expenses while simultaneously raising tuition. One aspect of undergraduate programs often targeted for reduction is the inclusion of various “hands-on” exercises that provide students with practical experience. This, trend, when combined with the traits of the typical “millennial generation” student, raises the possibility that current and future student cohorts will lack practical experience in core areas. We argue that despite the ongoing reductions of funding and support, it is both possible and beneficial to provide undergraduates with the hands-on experiences, experiential learning, and exposure to research and management topics that enrich their education and better prepare them for entry-level positions or graduate school. We describe a multi-tiered approach for doing so, and include examples from successful programs at two institutions.

Sustainability Beliefs of First-year Students in Natural Resources

Donald J. Orth et al. — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 15:00:00 PDT

A crux of the environmental problem is change resistance and few college students possess the critical analysis and persuasive communication skills needed to engage in this dialogue. Furthermore, there is little appreciation among college students for the diversity of beliefs regarding sustainability issues. We surveyed students enrolled in a First-Year Experience class in Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment. We used the Dunlap and Van Liere New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) measurement scale to assess the individual student orientations toward nature and the environment. The students enrolled in this class had enrolled voluntarily based on their interest in the study of the environment or natural resources. Therefore, it was no surprise that the score reflected a belief orientation towards sustainability. Survey results allowed these first-year students to discover the range of opinion among members of a relatively homogeneous sample. The survey provided insights regarding the human-centered or eco-centered orientation of their student peers. We used these findings to encourage revision of a draft problem-solving essay. We plan further use of the NEP measurement scale in our curriculum and encourage its adoptions by instructors involved in pedagogy of sustainable thinking.

Closing the Science-Practice Gap: Scientists and Community Members as Partners in Wildfire Management

Judy Serby — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 14:15:00 PDT

The link between science and on-the-ground practice is often not as easy to apply as scientists and stakeholders would believe. I will discuss approaches to the knowledge transfer process and a key lesson for researchers that suggest knowledge transfer should focus less on delivering specific knowledge and more on developing and strengthening networks with community members, practitioners and scientists.

Incorporating Measures of Community in Wildland Fire Preparedness Education

Jerry J. Vaske et al. — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 14:45:00 PDT

Using data from a survey of Colorado residents, we examined measures of sense of community (SOC). Respondents were asked to rate fifteen items measuring SOC on a 7-point scale, where 1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree. McMillan and Chavis (1986) suggest that these items form four dimensions of SOC: membership, influence, reinforcement of needs, and shared emotional connection. The four dimensions of SOC were supported by the data (i.e., Cronbach’s alpha > .80 for all four dimensions). A cluster analysis of the four dimensions of SOC identified three distinct segments of individuals. The first cluster indicated that they felt a strong SOC on all four dimensions. The second cluster felt a more neutral SOC, while the third cluster felt a low SOC on all four dimensions. We hypothesize that individuals with a low SOC will not be as likely to adopt wildfire protection (i.e., defensible space) behaviors. Understanding these segments can help inform future wildland fire educational materials.

Colorado Are You FireWise? Program: An Overview

Lisa Mason et al. — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 15:15:00 PDT

The Colorado State Forest Service began the “Are You FireWise?” and “Are You Plain’s FireWise?” in 1999 to help educate landowners and homeowners about steps they can take to protect their home from wildfire. This information has been disseminated through a variety of ways including community workshops, seminars and one-on-one forester to homeowner dialouge. Defensible space, home access, water supply, trees and shrubs, evacuation and interior safety are some of the topics covered in a FireWise workshop. This program has also been a key to developing community wildfire protection plans (CWPP). There are currently over 150 CWPPs in Colorado. FireWise practices are important for all ages to understand. Using the Fire Works Trunks, a fire ecology curriculum out of the National Fire Lab in Missoula, Montana, the CSFS has adapted some of the hands-on experiments from the curriculum to create a fire ecology and defensible space program for any age. This program covers lodgepole and ponderosa pine ecosystems, the fire triangle, defensible space and a great experiment called Matchstick Forests.

Defying Distance Education: Building a New Recreation Resource Management Program

Robin L. Ceurvorst — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:00:00 PDT

Facilitating Online Course Design in a Faculty Learning Community (FLC)

Jessica K. Tomaszewski — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 13:30:00 PDT

At University of Wisconsin Stevens Point (UWSP) in the academic year 2010-2011, online course instructors held informal lunch sessions in which they gathered to discuss challenges and resources in teaching online courses. For the 2011-2012 academic year the leaders of this group applied to have a formal Faculty Learning Community (FLC) in which we would work together to explore and create online course design guidelines for the campus. This group of online instructors is participating in a facilitated process in which we learn from one another’s experiences to inform the best practices in design and management for our campus’ online courses. UWSP offers minimal instructional design assistance for faculty and staff who teach online courses, so this opportunity has participants looking more deeply at different components of instructional design. Since we have many veteran online instructors, peer sharing with instructors who would like to teach more online and hybrid courses is a benefit to our rookie online instructors, as well as to the veteran instructors who learn through interacting with their colleagues. This FLC has members from many Colleges and Disciplines. This presentation will explore the process and progress this FLC has made in defining the best practices in course design guidelines for our campus.

Innovation in Natural Resources Engagement at Land-Grant Universities: a View from the Center for Collaborative Conservation

Robin S. Reid et al. — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 14:15:00 PDT

Historically, the creation of land-grant universities ushered in the idea of democracy and practicality in higher education. Today, that mission emphasizes the ‘outreach university’, one of service to society. Scholars continue to question whether the land grants are successfully meeting their missions, especially with declining funding to agricultural extension. In natural resources, we face a shift from production, use and management of natural resources to a much broader and more complex agenda of cultural, social, ecological and economic sustainability, in an environment of accelerating change. Here we ask: How might the natural resources parts of land-grant universities meet the complex challenges of sustainability through engagement in the 21st century? We begin addressing this question by reviewing new approaches to natural resources, including the ideas of problem-oriented and transdisciplinary education and research, an emphasis on holism and systems-oriented thinking, and new models for public engagement. We discuss the critical role of the land-grant university in building resilience of communities through engagement with diverse partners and transformative leadership. We then propose a model that focuses on creation and support of innovative and nimble boundary leaders and their supporting boundary institutions that work across multiple landscapes, institutions, disciplines and scales while working on complex, systems-level problems. In describing this model, we reflect on ways to overcome the challenges faced by boundary institutions when working across multiple boundaries on complex problems. We suggest that this model requires an ‘all hands on deck’ approach to problem solving in natural resources that draws from humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, law, engineering and beyond. These hands also include real engagement with community members, from developing fully relevant research to welcoming practitioners as teachers and equal partners. This approach can help propel land-grant education and research so that it is both useful and used, more than ever before. We conclude with some specific examples of new institutions that are attempting to embody these principles in philosophy and practice, based on our experience creating the Center for Collaborative Conservation at Colorado State University, working in the western US and around the world.

Understanding Scholarly Communication – Tools to Help Graduate Students Publish

Susanne Clement — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 12:30:00 PDT

Although graduate students are increasingly expected to publish before graduation, they are rarely offered formal education in the full range of the scholarly communication process in their discipline. They quickly learn how to do the research and to present their findings in a format suitable for submission to an academic peer-reviewed journal, but seldom do they (or their faculty advisors) understand the business of publishing and how that may affect their ability to get published. At Utah State University, the Department of Environment and Society (College of Natural Resources) started in 2010 requiring first-term graduate students to take a 2-credit class that will prepare them to publish in their field. Called Graduate Student Publishing Seminar (GSPS) it covers a broad range of topics related to scholarly communication and publishing. Actual publications are required to pass the class. The GSPS final grade is given the semester of their graduation. A senior professor in the department teaches GSPS with guest lectures provided by other faculty in the university. The subject librarian and a university press editor teach approximately 25% of the class. Based on the librarian’s lectures, this presentation will focus on why and how the GSPS curriculum includes information on the following topics: understanding the business of publishing, identifying and navigating the plethora of various publication types in a discipline, understanding impact and what it really means, reading publishing contracts and the copyright implications for the author (not only as a researcher but also as a future teacher), and familiarizing them to alternatives to traditional publishing – including open access models of publishing. The presentation will also provide a brief overview of GSPS’s overall course requirements as well as an assessment of student learning to the above curriculum.

Bridging the Gap for Emerging Professionals: CNHP's Professional Internship Program

David G. Anderson et al. — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 13:00:00 PDT

The Colorado Natural Heritage Program (CNHP) is a research and service institute of Colorado State University (CSU) in the Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology Department of Warner College of Natural Resources (WCNR). We are Colorado’s only comprehensive source of information on the status and location of Colorado’s rarest and most threatened species and plant communities. We are actively engaged with a wide range of stakeholders in partnerships that work to ensure that Colorado’s biodiversity resources are not diminished. In this role, we are uniquely poised to offer novel opportunities for young professionals who are seeking careers in natural resources conservation, management, and research. As part of Colorado State University, we are also well poised to support and engage students in a wide range fruitful and rewarding opportunities. Professional positions can be extremely difficult to find for students finishing an undergraduate degree. Positions that open at state and federal agencies often receive hundreds of applications. Many recent graduates with strong academic achievement records become frustrated in their pursuit of these opportunities. Many students that we interact with cite the “catch 22” of needing experience to secure a position or get accepted to graduate school, but have limited means of getting that experience. We have developed an internship program to help students bridge the gap between their Academic and professional careers. This program is targeted toward early-career professionals that have not completed a graduate degree. This program is unique in offering a salaried position for one or more professionals geared specifically towards the development of skills, credentials, and contacts with which to launch into a career in natural resources. Because graduate school is an important step in securing a position within an agency, non-profit, or scientific organization, there is an emphasis on graduate school preparation in this internship program. Interns are also guided through a process of engagement with key professionals and leaders within the natural resource field. Our guidance is part of a strategic approach to connecting the intern with professionals within their specific area of interest.