Tag Archives: Macdonald Campus

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Why care about Higher Education? (Quebec, please listen)

I don’t usually get political with my blog but this issue of Higher Education in Quebec is too important to sit back passively.  The Provincial Government of Quebec is imposing budget cuts to Universities, and the manner in which these cuts are being imposed is irresponsible, disrespectful, and the demands are untenable.  As is discussed by my Principal in her letter to the McGill community,   Universities are expected to cut budgets before the end of this fiscal year (an unprecedented challenge), and this was only brought forward in December.  No institution in its right mind would change the course of budgets mid-way through a fiscal year.

This makes me angry and frustrated because the cuts will affect people and will affect the ways we do our jobs.  They will affect livelihoods, morale, and they will affect services to students.  Universities in Quebec will struggle with recruitment of students and professors, and struggle with retention. These budget cuts will have wide-ranging  and long-term consequence for Higher Education in Quebec.

It’s time to reflect on the important question that is at the heart of this discussion:

Why care about Higher Education?

Caveats:   this list is not exhaustive, and it is certainly not complete.  These are my opinions, and I do not have expertise with all of the points I have raised – rather, they are my observations, ideas and are based upon my experience working at McGill for over 10 years.   Please share, add to the ideas, and comment.  

1.  Creating Leaders: My institution is helping in the process of educating creative thinkers, good communicators, and global citizens.  Our society need people with these characteristics as we move towards a difficult and uncertain future – a future with wide ranging environmental problems; a future with strife and conflict; a future with much economic uncertainty.  We need young people to become leaders, and regardless of their discipline (biology, economics, physics, etc) the individuals coming out of my institution will become these leaders.  We cannot turn our back on our students – we have a responsibility to continue to create and support a positive environment of higher education that will help train the the decision-makers of the future.   At our doorstep are complex problems that need individuals with creativity, curiosity, imagination and motivation – the sorts of characteristics that I see in the students in my lectures and in the students in my laboratory.

2. Creating Communities:  I work at a small campus that has a broad reach.  Some examples:  we have an Apiculture association that is developing workshops about beekeeping – an art and a science that we must understand and foster as we recognize the value of pollination for the food we eat.    We have a working farm – a  farm that invites school kids from the local area in to see the process of farming: work that is often rural and less accessible to people living in cities.   Professors in my Faculty give seminars about their work and invite anyone with an interest to come and listen to how we are working to solve global problems.  Higher Education is more valuable now that it has ever been in the past. Universities are becoming places with a focus and appreciation for outreach – outreach into our communities – our surrounding towns, schools, and community centres.  Universities are more than lecture halls filled with students. Universities are more than Professors talking to each other and writing research papers for their peers.  Universities are part of  fabric of our communities and integral to the well-being of our communities.

3. Creating Knowledge:  The beauty of higher education institutions is that they provide a home for the creation and dissemination of knowledge, and a kind of knowledge that can be gained from the intangible, the curious and from the process of reflection.  Although funding systems have changed, the job of a tenure-track Academic is stressful, and we are busy, I still think that most academics have some freedom and a bit of time in their jobs that allow for that pure and amazing process of ‘thinking about neat stuff‘.   Knowledge is dynamic, and knowledge is a product of the times we live in.  Knowledge cannot be generated with cookie-cutter approaches or prescriptive top-down directives – my University still allows some flexibility and freedom to engage in the process of creating knowledge.  That’s a very, very good thing.

4. Creating Friendships:  I have coffee with colleagues who have become my friends.  I see my Departmental administrative assistants every day – we talk about how the hockey practices went over the weekend – we talk about the local ski trails.  We discuss the fun and frustrating things that happen in our lives.  Students move through the system, but some become friends over time.  Students who have long graduated have come back to say hello – we talk about what they are doing now, and about how their little brother is going to come to University because he has heard so many great things about the place.    We discuss how they see the world after graduation, and talk of dreams and ambitions.   Like any good workplace, my Department is more than faces and names – my Department is about people and about friendships.  This is what happens inside the building and in the hallways of Universities.  Expanding this -  my University supports lives – it supports my family and the families of my friends at my workplace.

5. Creating Economies:  There are strong economic arguments about the value of Universities to the economies of the region and province and country in which they operate.  Students rent apartments and buy groceries, employees of McGill travel to conferences, and pay for taxis to and from the airport.  We cater meetings, and drink a lot of coffee.  We get business cards printed, we need to buy paper, computers and phones.  Universities help make small, local businesses become successful. On a bigger scale, our research programs are catalysts for larger economies in our cities and in our province, whether they be advances in medicine or solutions to global food security.  Graduates from our Universities go on to become lawyers, CEOs, and they build businesses and create opportunities for thousands.  Universities support and create economies – big and small.

Yes, higher education is about creating great things that are much bigger than the footprint of the buildings we work in.    Higher Education has values that are far beyond the curriculum and far beyond esoteric, and intellectual pursuits.

To the Parti Québécois:  making rash, and ill-thought decisions about funding to Universities is a serious mistake.  I urge you to step back, reflect, and move carefully with rethinking the budgets of Universities.  As my Provost stated, your economic approach is an assault on higher education, and this is truly alarming.

To my colleagues, my students, my friends:  please speak up.  Please raise your voice and be heard.  Let us stand together as a community (this is starting).  Let us ensure higher education remains a central part of Quebec.  May we continue to create great things.

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There is an upcoming summit about the future of Higher Education in Quebec.  I sincerely hope that part of the discussion can reflect on the bigger question about the value of Higher Education in this exceptional and incredible province.

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Careful what you say in lecture: a tale of tweets, ice-storms in Quebec, and population ecology

While discussing age pyramids in my ecology class last week, I mentioned that there was a mini baby-boom in Quebec following the 1998 ice storm. In other words, after an extended period of time without electricity, more babies were conceived.  This is one of those ‘urban myth‘ stories for which I had no data to actually discuss whether this was fact or fiction, but it was mildly amusing, and certainly related to the discussion we were having about population ecology and the effect of the baby-boom generation on Canadian demographics.

I expected this story to stop there, but a savvy student in my lecture tweeted what I had said (yes, there are definitely pros and cons of being an active participant in social media, including twitter).  I was being called out, publicly, about my casual comment in lecture.  This forced me to look to the data and test my hypothesis that the birth rate in Quebec may have been higher after the ice storm of 1998.

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Data required?  Yearly population estimates of areas affected by the ice storm (i.e., numbers of females), and number of births in these regions.

Thankfully, these data were readily available.  However, not all data were tabulated in the same way by geographic region in the Province.  This meant that I had to narrow down the region to just the island of Montreal (thankfully one of the more populated parts of the province).    I took the number of births, divided by the number of females to get a per-capita rate of births per female per year in Montreal, and I looked at the years from 1997 through to 2000.

I predicted that if my hypothesis was true, birth rates would be higher in late 1998, therefore if data were collected properly, the ‘boom’ in births would likely be in that year (…or possibly in 1999).

Here are the results:

1997: 0.012 (babies born / female)

1998: 0.012 (babies born / female)

1999: 0.011 (babies born / female)

2000: 0.011 (babies born / female)

So, the data do not support the hypothesis that the ice storm resulted in a higher rate of births in Montreal.

Caveats?  There are a lot.  I have made quite a few assumptions, and my methods are partially flawed… I do expect students in my class to think about this…

Two other points to mention:

First, while searching for information about population-level effects of the ice storm, I came across a McGill press release about how babies born during the ice storm may be stressed later in life – Interesting!  And also somewhat counterintuitive to what I originally proposed in lecture.

Second, (and less related), we must be wary of these myths – they pop up all over the place (e.g. increase in births after the publication of Fifty Shades of Grey?), but without a more detailed look at the data, we must be careful what we say.  Thankfully the urban myth about mini-baby booms and power outages are debunked with some regularity.

In sum, I learned an important lesson. Careful what you say in lecture.

…and thank you to my student who forced me to look more carefully into the story of the ‘ice storm babies’

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WANTED: graduate students

Interested in arthropod ecology?

Interested in graduate school?

I’m seeking at least two graduate students.  One, at the MSc level, on a project related to pollinator diversity within an agroecology context.  This is a Quebec-based project, and bilingualism would be required. The second, at the PhD level, will be about Arctic arthropod biodiversity with a particular focus on temporal changes in community structure. The Arctic project will involve a combination of field and laboratory work, and will in part deal with historical specimens. Both projects will require a student with interests in both taxonomy and ecology.  In other words, significant time at a microscope as well as time doing quantitative ecology.  Start dates are negotiable, but there is potential for field work to commence in May/June 2013.  Required skills include excellent communication skills, ability to work in a large, dynamic laboratory, passion for arthropod ecology, and abilities/interest in quantitative ecology.  Experience in Entomology and/or Arachnology would be an asset.

Please do your homework:  read my blog, and do research about my research; try to assess if you think you’ll be a good fit within my laboratory group.

Interested candidates should e-mail me with a brief (<200 words) statement of interest, a brief (<200 words) statement that outlines relevant experience and skills, and a brief sentence or two about your expectations in the context of graduate school at McGill University.  Please submit these to me before the end of January 2013.

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Misadventures in teaching: Technology Begone!

At the start of term, I discussed my continuing adventures in teaching, and I professed about how a tablet + whiteboard app would make me a better instructor, and help me deliver content more effectively in an introductory ecology class. Here’s an update.

At first, it just didn’t work.  I was sure it was because I had yet to perfect the technology – the writing was sloppy, the interface was awkward, and stuff I was writing was always appearing on the wrong part of the screen.  Students were chuckling in the classroom. I think the students could see the potential opportunities with the i-pad and whiteboard, especially being able to bring in complex graphs from a textbook.  However, potential is one thing and reality is another.  The biggest problem was that my writing on the i-pad was positively ridiculous.  

Example #1:

Just admire this amazing handwriting!

Just admire this amazing handwriting!

So, that was lecture #1.  I did not give up – I practiced in my office, worked on my penmanship, tried different i-pad apps, and kept at it.  It saddens me to say that Day 2 and 3 were not much better.

Example #2:

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Another problem was that when I exported the whiteboard as  PDF (i.e., so students could have a record of the lecture), I realized that over the course of the lecture, my handwriting continually got bigger.  Let me clarify:  the whiteboard app was an ‘ever expanding’ whiteboard – so if you wrote and filled up the screen, you simply move down or sideways to expose more whiteboard, and you can continue writing.  The problem is that if you aren’t careful, it’s easy to change the size of what you write without realizing it until you look at the entire whiteboard, as a PDF.  The student did not, therefore, find the exported whiteboard very helpful.

Example #3:

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I also tried using the typing feature a little bit – instead of writing like a 6-year old, I would sometimes bring up the keyboard and type.  However, I am not much of a fan of typing on an i-pad.  I need a real keyboard in order to be quick and in order to not make any mistakes (And let’s not talk about that dang auto-correct feature!).  Sigh.  The efforts at typing were a complete failure.

I’ll point out one final problem with the technology:  there was not a 1:1 ratio between the i-pad screen and the whiteboard that was projected.  This meant I would write away on the i-pad, assume everyone was following along, but would sense some unhappiness from the audience.  Sure enough, when turning around to see the screen, not all that I had written was  being projected.  This led to more fiddling around, more wasted time, more swearing under my breath. I’m sure there was some technological fix for this, but I was out of patience.

Yesterday I went back to using the chalkboard, and the lecture went smoothly, the class was happy(ier), and most importantly, I felt the content was being delivered in a more effective manner.

Technology: BEGONE!

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Teaching with Technology

Classes start today.  You can sense the excitement in the halls as undergraduates and instructors rush to classrooms – eagerly awaiting the start of lectures.  OK, perhaps not EVERYONE is that excited… but I am.  The start of term is always fun, and the start of class provides new opportunity to adjust, and hopefully improve, my own teaching .

I wrote a post about a year ago that expounded on the value of teaching without technology (In Praise of Chalk).  Fundamentally, I can’t stand Powerpoint – it’s annoying, boring, causes information overload, and puts people to sleep.  In my course that starts today (Population & Community Ecology), I have traditionally used the chalk board, and feel it has numerous benefits. It allows for a more engaging and interactive classroom environment, facilitates high attendance, and slows down content delivery.  That being said, using a chalkboard also has some important drawbacks including (but not limited to): a) students having to decipher my poor handwriting; b) having to frequently have my back to the class; c) inability to easily bring complex graphs and figures into the lecture (i.e., from the textbook) – to do this would require switching between the data projector and the chalk board – an impossibility in the classroom in which I am teaching.

So, it’s not without a heavy does of irony that this term I am reintroducing some technology into the classroom.  In fairness, I see this as a natural evolution from the chalkboard, and will hopefully allow to overcomes some of the disadvantages of the chalkboard (In my previous post, I did discuss how a ‘smartboard’ or ‘whiteboard’ may be worth trying…).  This term, I will try using a tablet (i-pad), connected to the data projector (via a $35 cable), along with a tablet-friendly pen, and a piece of free software (a type of whiteboard – I’m going to try the Educreations app).

Teaching tools.

Teaching tools.

I’ve been playing around with this for a few days and here are my initial impressions:  this approach will allow me to import photos – in particular, I will use images of complex graphs/figures from my textbook, and I can use the pen to highlight / draw / write on these figures.  I should also be able to face the class when writing on the i-pad, and the software does have a function which allows for typing – this will help with the handwriting problems.   The software does have a few issues – it doesn’t allow easy options for saving (i.e., you must create an account with educreations, etc), nor does the app come with an eraser (it does have an ‘undo’ button, but that button only works on the page you are currently working on – so, if you have to return to a previous slide, you can only add content, not remove what is already there).  Nevertheless, I think the app will serve its purpose.  If I really like using the i-pad for teaching, I might invest in other apps – there are many out there.

So, onwards with another exciting adventure in teaching!  I’ll keep you posted about whether this approach works or whether I return to the comfort zone of dusty chalk.

What are your opinions and experiences?  Please share….

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Strategies for teaching a field biology course

…Part 2 from a series of posts about the value of field biology courses

I previously wrote about the value of field courses in undergraduate University programs, and promised to follow up with a post focused on the ‘how’.  It’s also timely since my field biology course from this term is wrapping up, so it’s a good opportunity to reflect on the past term.  It is important to write about some practical strategies for instructing field biology courses because I sometimes hear from my colleagues (and some University administrators) that field biology courses are too expensive, only possible with small class sizes, impractical for introductory classes, and otherwise difficult to successfully integrate into an Academic program.   I have been teaching field biology for a number of years, and believe that most of these criticisms are not valid.    I hope this post can dispel some myths about field biology courses, and convince more people to offer outdoor experiences and experiential learning as part of University curriculum.

Sampling pond invertebrates, five minutes from campus

1. Think global, act local.  Field biology classes do not need to go to exotic locations to be successful.  Many people associate field biology with traveling to a Caribbean Island, a rainforest, or the desert – true, these are prime locations for field courses, but it’s not necessary to travel far to teach field biology.  Our own backyards are ideal locations to study.  In fact, our own backyards are highly relevant to field biology since they are habitats that can be most relevant to our own well-being!   A trip to a local agricultural field will firmly implant the importance of food security and the relationship between food production and global food markets.  A trip to a urban park can be an opportunity to discuss and learn about introduced species and how they are affecting our local biota (European starlings, anyone?).  A trip to a roadside ditch can illustrate how local dispersal plays a role in governing the population dynamics of aquatic macroinvertebrates.  All of these concepts can be illustrated by habitats found within walking distances of many University campuses.  No flights required.

2. The yellow school bus.  Without a doubt, transportation is expensive, and even local trips can be costly.  However, it’s important to remember that ALL courses are expensive, and the fees associated with a yellow school bus are analogous to fees for chemicals, glassware and other consumables associated with a wet chemistry laboratory.  Unfortunately, my experience has been that Administrators do not see outdoors labs through the same lens as indoor labs. Although indoor ‘lab fees’ are often within Departmental or Faculty budgets, renting buses is often an expense that is not accounted for in the same way.  This can be a key reason for the impression that field biology courses are expensive.  I urge you to work within your own systems to find a way to make the yellow school bus as important as all other fees associated with delivering any University course.  Until this institutional shift is made, you will need to come up with creative solutions to the transportation issue.  For example, I often work with my colleagues to find a way to share busses, or do some laboratories within walking distance of our campus.  It may also be possible to have students take public transit to a designated field site.

3. Group work!  A few years ago I was faced with increased enrolment in my field biology course and this presented a challenge.  Suddenly ‘in the field’ lectures and discussions would be impossible (how do you speak to 60 students outside, in a gale-force wind?).  Discussing strategies with colleagues was informative, and I learned that many field biology courses were capped to avoid taking too many students outside.  I didn’t like this – and I could not cap my course without good reason, especially since my course was a requirement for the program.  The solution?  Group work and student-led learning!  For most of my laboratories, I have designed specific activities that don’t require any formal ‘outdoor lectures’ (which, by the way, are generally useless).   Upon getting off a bus, students are often put into groups (sometimes predetermined, sometimes not) and they rotate through different activities.  Here are some examples:

(i)  In a lab about agroecosystems this term, groups of students walked separately through different field crops at the local horticultural centre, and were asked to observe various aspects of the small-scale agriculture system.  The instructor and the TA walked among the groups and took part in the discussions as necessary.  The students were asked to ask questions, make observations, and then meet at a designated time to discuss their questions with the head of the horticultural centre.

(ii) In an earlier offering of my course, students were put into groups at a local forest, and were asked to move around to different locations where they were met by instructors or TAs, and at those locations they took part in small activities related to studying biodiversity in the forest – invertebrates at one location, bird calls at another, plant identification at a third, etc.

(iii) I have sometimes sent all groups off to do the same activity (e.g., measuring soil types in a forest or agroecosystem) and then bring the data back to a classroom and their data provided the content for a lecture about variability in nature and bias in observation.

(iv) As a final example, in one laboratory to a wetland conservation area, individual students were asked, ahead of time, to research specific species that we would see while visiting a field site.  The students became the experts and they were asked to share their knowledge with their peers (i.e., when they were in groups, in the field).  The students became the instructors, and nothing reinforces concepts and content like having to teach it!

….Fundamentally, field biology with a larger class size must embrace the idea of doing group work.

Students, working in groups

4. Bring in the experts.  Field biology is complex to teach in part because of nature’s variability and because an instructor cannot be the expert in all things.  I use the approach of inviting my colleagues (and graduate students) to take part in (and lead) specific activities related to their own expertise.  By in large, I have found my colleagues to be very open to this idea, and provided I do not ask them for help every year, they are most willing to take part.   For many of my colleagues who do not teach in field biology courses regularly, this is a nice opportunity to get outdoors and take part in a different style of teaching.  It’s also a big advantage to students as they are able to appreciate different teaching styles, and gain a recognition for various levels of expertise by instructors.  In fact, this week I am inviting a geologist to take my students on a walk around Mont Royal in Montreal.  Understanding the geological foundations to our local ecosystems is only possible in this class because of the generous involvement from my colleague.  In sum – a  field biology course can be improved by bringing in additional help.

5. Set-up your lab with a lecture:  I have found it immensely useful to set up a field biology laboratory with some kind of content in advance of the trip.  This allows for ‘setting the stage’ so the unfamiliar can be a little more familiar.  To relate this back to my geology field-laboratory, earlier in the term the same colleague came and gave a (indoor) lecture on the geology of the greater Montreal area.  The students therefore have had exposure to the topic in advance of the lab, and were asked to do some readings prior to the laboratory.  This avoids that problem of tying to deliver lectures outside.  Trying to combine experiential learning, in the field, with learning content and concepts, can be difficult.  Use an earlier lecture slot as a means to set up the field activities and laboratories. Sometimes this will mean unique scheduling options for your course.  For example, I have timetabled my course by doing a one-hour lecture each Tuesday an one four-hour field lab each Thursday – the Tuesday lecture can be used to cover some content and allows me to devote the entire field laboratory to field activities.

Field Biology in the winter – why not?

6. Embrace the unpredictable:  Taking students out in a rainstorm, or when it’s -15C, is part of the field biology experience.  Nature can be unpredictable, and we need to embrace this instead of shy away from it.  In the Montreal area, seasonability is a driving force in all our ecosystems, yet field biology courses tend to be focused in ‘nice weather’ seasons.  My colleague Murray Humphries is always telling me that our students must realize that winter ecology is as important as what happens in the summer!  He’s right! (Murray, by the way, does take students out on winter trips in his mammalogy course, and they do winter tracking and other activities relate to cold-weather science).   We can see and do a lot of field biology in all seasons, and must change the mindset of associating field biology with the warm months.  And, as an anecdote, of all the camping trips that I did with my father when I was (much) younger, I remember vividly the ones with rain, sleet, snow and wind storms.  Nice weather is boring.

In sum, field biology courses are doable, providing the instructor can be creative and embrace alternative approaches to teaching.

What are your own strategies?  Please share…

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A fallen tree creates an opportunity to learn

I  recently wrote a post about the value of field work in undergraduate university education. Then, on Thursday of last week, I took my class on a field trip to Île Saint-Bernard – a fabulous ‘wildlife refuge’ south of Montreal.  It is a spot where we discuss and explore definitions of wetlands and issues related to wetland conservation.  I’ve done this trip in the past, and one of the highlights is a visit to see a truly amazing tree – a huge, old, (and relatively rare, in Quebec) specimen of swamp oak (Quercus bicolor).  I was really looking forward to seeing this tree.  As we rounded the corner, here’s what awaited us:

The swamp oak – deceased

Yes, the tree was dead:  it had been cut down (presumably because it had started to rot and fall, and was becoming a hazard for visitors).   This created a very acute and emotional reaction by me and the students.  At first it was dismay, shock and everyone was full of questions – Why was it cut down?  How old was it? What will happen?  How long will it take to decompose?  Slowly, but in a real and important way, the mood shifted from one of dismay to one of wonder and awe.  We began to see that the sun was shining down through the (now) open canopy – there were chickadees chirping and watching our group.  We also noticed that on the bark of the fallen tree a seed had germinated and plant was starting to grow.

A seedling from the folds of the dead tree.

The fallen, dead tree was provided us an incredible learning opportunity:

An opportunity to discuss forest succession, and the dynamic nature of forest ecology.

An opportunity to discuss managing a forest for multi-use and the difficulties in thinking about hazards to the public and balancing that with a need to conserve the land.

An opportunity to talk about ecological time, land use and development that occurred since the time the oak tree was an acorn.

An opportunity to see and feel the microhabitat differences between the dark, damp forest interior and the drier and sunlit area where the tree had fallen.  It was an opportunity to discuss forest gaps, and their relative importance in different biomes.

In truth, the dead tree provided a much richer field experience than had the live specimen.

A learning opportunity, around the tree.

These fascinating and unexpected learning opportunities occurred because we were on a field trip.  When teaching outside the classroom we cannot always predict what we will see and do.   The spontaneity of the event, and emotional reaction to the huge, fallen tree is something we will all remember:  The experience will stick.

…and those are some more reasons to include field courses in undergraduate education.

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The Value of Field Courses

Part 1 – Why Include Field Courses in Undergraduate University Curriculum?

Taking students outside the classroom, and into streams, forests, or fields, can be a rewarding experience for both the instructor and the student.  I am reminded of this every autumn when I teach an introductory field ecology course as part of McGill University’s Major in Environmental Biology.  In this class, we visit many ecosystems, and the hope is that students, through learning outdoors, gain additional insights, and exposure to a suite of experiences they would otherwise not get in a classroom.

That being said, what is the real pedagogical value of field courses?  Or, why do we bother with field courses?  Sure, it’s fun to be outside, and for those students who like wearing rubber boots and ‘toughing it’ outdoors, it’s much more interesting than a lecture hall.  However, is there real value in terms of how content might be delivered or retained?  Are field courses just a feel-good ‘gimmick’?

Undergraduate students doing field work in an undergraduate course: hands-on experience

These questions were at the forefront of a teaching workshop we had in May of 2012 (I wrote about this previously) – as part of that workshop, Graham Scott (from University of Hull in the UK), highlighted some of his research about the value of field courses, and this work resonated with a lot of us who teach field courses at McGill.  I was particularly interested in reading his paper titled ‘The Value of Fieldwork in Life and Environmental Sciences in the Context of Higher Education: A Case Study in Learning About Biodiversity‘.  In this work, there is a nice introduction that states how many people believe and assume fieldwork is valuable because (and I am paraphrasing here):

Field trips are rewarding and satisfying (i.e., FUN) for the instructor and student

Field courses will improve recruitment and retention (i.e., used as a tool to draw students into an academic program at University, and keep them in the program once they arrive)

Field courses enable students to gain key skills, and transferable skills

The mushroom collecting laboratory as part of an undergraduate University course about field biology

This has certainly been my (informal) assessment about the value of field courses.  Students demonstrate (through enthusiasm, passion, motivation, and conversation) that they appreciate seeing and doing things outside of the classroom.  Earlier this term, when walking around the Morgan Arboretum with my class, we stopped and looked at invasive Noway Maple trees, and my Teaching Assistant was able to show them how to identify the species. Many of the students were able to grab a leaf, right there and at that time, and look at the key characteristics.  I like to think this visual and hands-on approach will help the content sink in, long-term, and that students will be able to remember the biology and natural history of Norway maples months or years after the course finishes.  I also think they will look at all maple tress a little differently, and think about similarities and differences, and about introduced (or alien/exotic) species.  These are big topics, of significance to conservation of biodiversity and environmental science at large.  Or, in other words, I think this experience will lead to life-long learning.

Just last week we had a field trip devoted to collections and identification of mushrooms.  The students split into groups and collected a diversity of fruiting bodies over the course of the three-hour laboratory.  They seemed genuinely enthusiastic and in awe of the diversity of shapes, sizes, colours and smells of the mushrooms. I don’t think this experience could ever be replicated in a classroom setting, or even in an indoor laboratory.  Being out in the woods, crouching down beside rotten logs, and learning how to watch for and collect mushrooms is something many of the students had never done before, and I like to think that this kind of experiential learning will stick.  Life-long learning again!  As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I attribute my love of natural history to my exposure to nature as a child, through field guides and hands-on learning (although in this case the instructor was my father).  Field-courses, at a University level, can inspire people the very same way!

In fairness, I have only presented anecdotes and it would be nice to look to the scientific literature for proper studies that test for the pedagogical value of field courses for undergraduate students.  This takes us back to the work of Graham Scott and colleagues.  Graham et al. worked with undergraduate students and separated them into two groups: one group received instructions and then did a hands-on (in the stream) collection of aquatic invertebrates, and the second group received the same instruction in an indoor laboratory setting (i.e., as a laboratory demonstration) but did not actually do the sampling in a stream. It’s also important to note that the students did not know, ahead of time, whether they were going to participate in a laboratory or field-based activity (there were told to expect ‘practical work’ and be potentially prepared for outdoor activities). In a laboratory, after a short break, from the field/lab work, the students were asked to separate and characterize (draw, label) the biodiversity of the aquatic invertebrates.  These specific samples were collected separately (by the instructors) so there was no potential bias associated regarding who collected what samples.

Undergraduate students sampling aquatic invertebrates in an undergraduate course at McGill University

The result?  The authors document that the actual hands-on experiences had a real effect on students.  Students that had the field component to the activity enjoyed and valued the experience, felt that they learned more effectively, and ‘…were better able to construct a taxonomic list of organisms that they had collected themselves’.   Although more research on this topic is required (their sample size was relatively low), this paper does help provide some solid evidence that field courses are, from a pedagogical perspective, valuable.

Field courses are much more than a teaching gimmick:  field course benefit a student’s academic experience.  Field courses are an effective way to teach and learn course material. Of course, field courses are not relevant to all disciplines, but for students in biology or environmental science programs, field courses often appear in the curriculum, and I would argue they are en essential part of these programs.  Universities ought to support and promote their field courses.  When developing curriculum for an undergraduate program, field course should be as essential as a microbiology lab.  We live in a world that requires people to have experience in all facets of their environment, from shopping malls and urban centres, to corn-fields, marshes, and forests.   We are doing a disservice to undergraduate students if our teaching does not venture into the field.   That is the “why”.

To finish, I really appreciate a quote from the Discussion of Graham et al.’s paper: ‘Learning is enhanced in the field’.   Indeed – this is exactly my perception, and my experiences with field courses suggest this is true.  Feedback on my course evaluations speaks to this, also.  In my area of teaching, field courses will remain central to the academic program of Environmental Biology, and I encourage others to consider adding field courses to their own program.

Naysayers:  We often hear that field courses are too expensive, too difficult, too logistically complicated, and can be done only with small groups of students.  These are not valid arguments and in a future post, I will discuss these issues in detail.  Part 2 will, therefore, deal with the “how“.  Stay tuned.

Reference:
Scott, G.W., et al. (2012). The Value of Fieldwork in Life and Environmental Sciences in the Context of Higher Education: A Case Study in Learning About Biodiversity Journal of Science Education and Technology, 21, 11-21 DOI: 10.1007/s10956-010-9276-x

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Succeed at University: ten tips for new undergraduate students

The start of term is an exciting time for those of us involved in Academia – new students are arriving on campus, full of enthusiasm, hope, and questions.  As a Program Director for McGill’s Environmental Biology Major, I am asked a lot of these questions, and I am sometimes asked for advice.  I thought it worthwhile providing ten simple tips for incoming students, and perhaps some of these will help make the transition to University a smooth one.

Meet your advisor!

1.  Meet your academic advisor:  Most academic programs have an ‘academic advisor’ associated with them (e.g., see here for McGill’s website about advising).  These individuals are there to help students get through their program, and advisors typically help students with course selection, and help plan a student’s academic program.  When arriving on campus, you should book a meeting with your advisor, and more importantly, listen to their advice!  Advisors know the ins and outs of your program, and paying attention to them will help you in the long run.  You don’t want to end up messing up your academic program because you decided to avoid taking required courses early on in your program!

2.  Have an agenda, and use it:  This seems like pretty obvious advice, but you would be surprised how many students (and Professors!) don’t have a good system for managing time.  University is a lot about managing your time: getting to classes, dealing with e-mails, assignments, planning for exams, facebook, and squeezing in a social life, or a part-time job.  It’s a struggle to manage all these tasks, and to help with this, develop a clear and straightforward system of ‘calendar + tasks‘.  Under calendar, include your class schedule, important dates and meetings, and most importantly, LOOK at the calendar regularly!  I personally prefer using an on-line calendar that syncs with my phone – but some people prefer the old-fashion (yet dependable) hard-copy calendar.  For tasks, include short-term tasks (with deadlines – cross-referenced with your calendar) and long-term tasks, so that you are reminded of deadlines that might be weeks away, yet will sneak up on you.  I use a small notebook for my task list, and it is always with me – for me, the act of physically writing down a task list helps me remember what I need to work on.   A good system for your agenda and tasks will make your life a lot easier.  Furthermore, effective use of an agenda and task list will help you refine your time management skills, and these skills are truly essential to success at University (and for your career, beyond…).

3.  Show up on time and don’t miss deadlines:  Again, this seems pretty obvious, but it’s also pretty easy to mess up.  Treat University like a professional job – you need to be mature, you must be on time, and you never miss deadlines.  In fact, aim to have everything done early (with good time management skills, this is very possible!).    Being late to lectures, or having to ask for extensions on papers or projects, does you no favours.  Professors, generally speaking, are not impressed by these behaviours.    At some point, you may need to ask your Professors for a letter of reference, and it is much better to be remembered as the students who hands in papers early.

University awaits: the entrance to one of the buildings at McGill Macdonald campus

4.  Go to lectures:   Lectures are there for a reason:  they provide you with value-added content.  It’s true that some of the content may be available on-line, or with a text-book, but in most cases, lectures will help to draw connections between different content, and/or provide a valuable context to the material that might be in the textbook or on-line.   Most Professors take a lot of pride in lecturing, and work hard to make the lectures engaging, interesting, and thought-provoking.  You will soak up an amazing amount of material by just being in lectures, and paying attention.

5.  Ask questions:  In most of my classes, I tell students that there are no stupid questions (except for “Will this be on the exam?”).  This is very, very true.  If you are confused about a concept, or failed to get the point of a slide, or discussion, you must ask for clarification. Although it can be intimidating to ask a question in a large lecture hall, it’s important to try.  If you are confused, it’s highly likely that other student’s are also confused.  You are helping yourself, and your peers, when you put your hand up.

6.  Get to know your instructors:    Whenever possible, get to know the instructors of your courses, be they Professors, Lecturers, or Teaching Assistants.  Most instructors have office hours, and these hours are there for good reason – they provide time to meet your instructor, ask questions, and have a personal connection with them.  Don’t be intimidated by the Professors: we are people, too, and most of us recognize that life as an incoming undergraduate student can be stressful and difficult.  We can provide you help with course content, but also help direct you to other resources.  Getting to know your instructors also helps when you might be seeking a summer job in the future, or when you need a letter of recommendation.

7.  Get help when you are struggling:  At some point in your University career you will likely need help, whether it is with difficulties with a personal relationship, failing a course, or getting sick.  The University system is a compassionate and collegial environment and it’s a place with a lot of wonderful resources to help you when you are struggling.  Don’t hesitate to seek help when you need it – visit health services when you are sick, or talk to your academic advisor if you are having difficulties with your program.  Most importantly: know what services are available ahead of time (e.g., see this example for McGill), so when you need assistance, you know how to get it.

8. Avoid ‘grade panic’:  I am living proof that it is possible to do poorly at undergraduate courses yet still have a successful career!  When I was an undergraduate student at the University of Guelph, I just about failed my first year physics course and I was terrified that this would make it impossible to succeed in any kind of career.  Of course this was not the case – a University education is much more than a single course, or a single quiz or examination – an academic program has many components and even if some of the components slow down occasionally, this does not mean the program is broken.   Aim for excellence in your academics, but also remember that EVERYONE has bad days, preforms poorly on an exam, or just can’t seem to figure out a particular University subject.  This is normal, and you must keep everything in perspective!  Your University career is not defined by a single moment of failure – keep the bigger picture in perspective, and don’t sweat the small failures.  In a University environment, success at everything is nearly impossible to achieve.   Keep a level head,  keep calm, aim for excellence, but don’t panic when things go wrong.

Eat your veggies!

9.  Stay healthy: Your mother was right – eat your vegetable and get some sleep.  Invariably, influenza and/or a bout of gastro will whip through residence halls sometime around when mid-term exams are starting.  Your best line of defense is a healthy immune system, and part of that includes nutrition and sleep.  I think it’s more important to be less prepared but well rested than over-prepared and exhausted – and if you attended lectures (see point 4, above), your rested mind will be in a good position to access the course content.

10.  Have fun!   Life as an undergraduate student is incredibly enriching on intellectual, emotional, and social levels.  Slow down every now and then, breath deeply, and remember what an amazing environment you are in. University provides a wealth of opportunities (student groups, sports, lectures, laboratories, and more), and these are all extremely rewarding in many ways.  Don’t forget to take it all in – in the future, you will remember a lot of details from your University days and you want these memories to be more than sweating over deadlines.

What did I miss…? Pass along your best tips!

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Urban field work: Pollinators in Montreal

I finally managed to get a little bit of field work in this week.  Although some would question whether it’s REALLY field work, since it involved driving to a couple of cemeteries and community gardens in the city of Montreal!  This urban field work is the start of a terrific new Master’s project by student Étienne Normandin.  Here he is, happily doing field work in a community garden:

Sweeping for bees (and other insects) in a Montreal community garden

Étienne is worked with Valérie Fournier and me in a collaborative project about bees in Montreal.  In this project, we are interesting in asking about the diversity and community structure of wild and domesticated bees in urban areas, and we are working in two major urban centres: Montreal and Quebec City.   Over the past couple of weeks, Étienne has been setting up traps in community gardens and other habitats (including cemeteries) to assess the bee biodiversity.   Étienne is using a combination of approaches to collect bees, including sweep-netting (as pictured above) and  elevated pan traps, as illustrated here (the different colours are used to attract different kind of bees):

Étienne setting up elevated pan traps, to collect bees

This is the very start of what will be an interesting and important project, especially given the concern about the losses of bees, and the economic and ecological consequence of changing pollinator communities.  I will continue to post developments in this project.  And, I warmly welcome Étienne to the Arthropod Ecology laboratory!