OCELOTS

Resource Type

• Module

Courses

• Ecology

Course Level

• Upper Level
• Graduate

Bloom's Cognitive Level

• Application & Analysis
• Synthesis/Evaluation/Creation

Vision and Change Core Competencies

• Ability to apply the process of science
• Ability to use quantitative reasoning
• Ability to tap into the interdisciplinary nature of science
• Ability to communicate and collaborate with other disciplines
• Ability to understand the relationship between science and society

Four Dimensional Ecology Education (4DEE) Framework

• Core Ecological Concepts
  • Organisms
    • Abiotic and biotic features of the environment
    • Resources and regulators
    • Habitat and niche: fundamental – realized
  • Community
    • Habitat types – terrestrial – marine – aquatic – wetlands – soils
    • Species diversity – biodiversity – dominance
    • Behavioral ecology
• Ecology Practices
  • Quantitative reasoning and computational thinking
    • Statistics
    • Data skills – inputting and data-mining / meta-analysis/ data visualization
    • Computer skills: spreadsheets, “R”
    • Data analysis and interpretation
  • Designing and critiquing investigations
    • Study design, familiarity with basic modes of ecological inquiry (description, comparison, experimentation, modeling)
    • Argument from evidence
  • Communicating and applying ecology
• Human-Environment Interactions
  • Human dependence on the environment
    • Ecosystem services (Daily 1997)
  • Human accelerated environmental change – there is no pristine ecosystem nor total equilibrium
    • Anthropogenic impacts, intentional and unintentional
  • How humans shape and manage resources/ecosystems/the environment
    • Agricultural ecosystems – agroecology, fisheries, forestry
    • Natural resource management
    • Conservation biology
  • Ethics – critical thinking about the values underlying how we approach and address environmental problems, challenges, and opportunities in environmental decision-making and policy
    • Environmental ethics – basic types of ethics and their sources/foundations (includes ecological)
    • Environmental justice
• Cross-cutting Themes
  • Structure & Function
  • Spatial & Temporal
    • Scales

Class Type

• Lecture
• Discussion Section
• On-line

Class Size

• 1-50

Audience

• Life Sciences Major
• Non-Life Sciences Major
• Non-Physics/Engineering Major
• Non-Traditional Student
• 2-year College
• 4-year College
• University
• Other

Lesson Length

• Multiple class periods

Key Scientific Process Skills

• Reading research papers
• Asking a question
• Formulating hypotheses
• Designing/conducting experiments
• Predicting outcomes
• Gathering data/making observations
• Analyzing data
• Interpreting results/data
• Displaying/modeling results/data
• Communicating results

Pedagogical Approaches

• Brainstorming
• Case Study
• Collaborative Work
• Reflective Writing
• Interactive Lecture
• Pre/Post Question

Principles of How People Learn

• Motivates student to learn material
• Reveals prior knowledge
• Requires student to do the bulk of the work

Assessment Type

• Exam/quiz, in class
• Exam/quiz, take home
• Answer essay question(s)
• Answer multiple choice question(s)
• Answer short answer question(s)
• Create a diagram, drawing, figure, etc.
• Create graph, table etc. to present data
• Design an experiment or research study
• Interpret data
• Participate in discussion
• Post-test
• Pre-test
• Written assignment: Essay