I am following this thread with some amusement... I am in Belize with 20 undergraduates on a natural history course... next week, 45 students from University of Arkansas will travel to Dangriga Belize for your 7th summer of service/learning for 3 weeks....
As others have mentioned, if you feel seriously about field experiences, it is up to you to provide those experiences for your students... I find it is very rewarding and a life changing experience for many students.... Saludos, Kim **************************************** Kimberly G. Smith University Professor of Biology Department of Biological Sciences University of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR 72701 USA phone 479-575-6359 fax 479-575-4010 email kgsm...@uark.edu **************************************** ________________________________________ From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU] on behalf of Andrés Santana [andres.sant...@ots.ac.cr] Sent: Friday, May 16, 2014 5:20 PM To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Loss of field courses, continued We at OTS share this concern. We truly believe that field courses and field research present students with some of the best opportunities to do research and understand nature. I know firsthand that spending a semester out in field stations taking courses and doing research is a life changing experience. I was fortunate enough to be chosen to participate in a field semester with and OTS program. OTS specializes in field courses and we welcome any faculty member that wants to teach a course at any one of our field stations. We are constantly working on and thinking of new field course topics in ecology and evolution that will prove beneficial to students (undergrad and grad) in their professional and academic careers. We would be glad to hear your input and work with any of you setting up courses to teach your students or students from any university. Best, Andrés Santana Graduate Education Department Organization for Tropical Studies San Pedro, Costa Rica. 676-2050 (506) 2524-0607 ext. 1511 Skype: andres.santana_otscro www.ots.ac.cr twitter: @ots_tropicaledu -----Original Message----- From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [mailto:ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU] On Behalf Of Malcolm McCallum Sent: Friday, May 16, 2014 01:08 PM To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Loss of field courses, continued Bruce Bury's article... Bury, B. 2006. Natural history, field ecology, conservation biology, and wildlife management: Time to connect the dots. Herpetological Conservation and Biology 1:56-61. http://www.herpconbio.org/volume_1/issue_1/Bury_2006.pdf On Fri, May 16, 2014 at 10:19 AM, David Inouye <ino...@umd.edu> wrote: > Paul Dayton asked me to post this: > > Dear Colleagues, I have enjoyed reading your laments about the loss of > field courses and of course have strong opinions about this because it > really is also the loss of respect for nature herself. We can't > really understand nature without experiencing it and students can't > experience it hiding behind computers in cloistered ivory towers. > Harry Greene and I have written about this: > > The importance of Natural Sciences to Conservation, 2003. American > Naturalist (162) and Organisms in Nature as a central focus in biology > 2005, TREE (20) > > and Ian Billick and Mary Price have a wonderful book: The Ecology of > Place I urge you to buy and read it. > > But the most important challenge I offer those of you who care enough > to comment is to offer a field course yourself. Try it; it takes a > little time but even if you don't know that much, your students will > help teach it for you and soon you will be considered a legendary > naturalist. Don't just complain, offer a field course yourself. It > will evolve and you will learn a lot and have a lot of fun as well. > Finally, ESA has a Natural History Section in need of your support and > enthusiasm as it I think Nature is disappearing within ESA just as it did in > the Amer. Soc. of Naturalists. > Once students lose track of nature and become professors with no > understanding or experience themselves, it is hard to recover the > sense of wonder nature can induce in our science. > > Paul Dayton <pday...@ucsd.edu> -- Malcolm L. McCallum, PHD, REP Department of Environmental Studies University of Illinois at Springfield Managing Editor, Herpetological Conservation and Biology “Nothing is more priceless and worthy of preservation than the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed. It is a many-faceted treasure, of value to scholars, scientists, and nature lovers alike, and it forms a vital part of the heritage we all share as Americans.” -President Richard Nixon upon signing the Endangered Species Act of 1973 into law. "Peer pressure is designed to contain anyone with a sense of drive" - Allan Nation 1880's: "There's lots of good fish in the sea" W.S. Gilbert 1990's: Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution. 2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction MAY help restore populations. 2022: Soylent Green is People! The Seven Blunders of the World (Mohandas Gandhi) Wealth w/o work Pleasure w/o conscience Knowledge w/o character Commerce w/o morality Science w/o humanity Worship w/o sacrifice Politics w/o principle Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. --- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.
