Teaching narrative
When I arrived at the University of South Florida for graduate school, I knew that part of my acceptance package included a teaching assistantship. Besides some articles on syllabus creation that I read for my undergraduate teaching assistantship, I was entirely unfamiliar with any of the science behind teaching: How do students learn best? How do I ensure my students walk away with the specific learning objectives that I have in mind?
Luckily, I thought, the Principles of Ecology lab (Ecology lab) I was assigned to teach my first semester has materials already created by someone far more experienced than myself and I could learn as I go. I shadowed the older teaching assistants each week during my first semester, mirroring their teaching practices in my own sections. As the semester went on, however, I realized how disorganized each lab was. The learning outcomes were not obviously stated for each lab nor did the materials connect to one another. The students were overworked with mismatched objectives and assignments and the teaching assistants had little time to adjust.
After one year of teaching the lab sections and another year of helping with the corresponding Principles of Ecology lecture course, I realized that I was in the best position to finally make a change. I was still early on in my graduate degree and I had a complete understanding of both the lab and lecture courses. During the summer of 2019, I applied for a graduate assistantship in my department with stated objectives of overhauling the course and was granted the opportunity to make these necessary changes.
Backwards Design
During that summer, I realized that the Ecology lab was not the only thing in need of an overhaul, I, too, needed to brush up on teaching practices. I enrolled in a teaching prep course run by the Academy for Teaching and Learning Excellence at USF and began applying those skills immediately. I started with the learning outcomes for the course as well as for each individual lab, not just because of the principles of backwards design, but also because of student comments like the following:
The instructions and objectives are confusing (Fall 2017, PCB 3043L-005).
The lab is disorganized, and the objectives overall very loosely tie together
(Fall 2017, PCB 3043L-005).
I set to work with Bloom’s taxonomy verbs and rewrote vague objectives like, “students will gain experience in scientific writing” into “by the end of this lab, I will help students to communicate knowledge of an ecological topic to their scientific peers and the general public.”
Principles of Ecology Lab Spring 2020 Syllabus (pre-Covid changes)
Principles of Ecology Lab - Learning Outcomes
After updating the course and lab learning outcomes, I then needed to line up the outcomes with the assessments. I noticed that the current set-up had students reading through pages of background information during the first 20–30 minutes of class and no assessments were targeted at their retention of that information. This set-up also wasted precious in-class time on materials that could be made available to students ahead of class. I created “Student Prep Work” pages on Canvas that became available as soon as the previous lab ended. These pages utilized multimedia (e.g., videos, tutorials, scientific articles, and newspaper articles) to keep students engaged as well as prepare them for the upcoming lab. A small paragraph was also added to the beginning of each prep work page to situate the lab in respect to the course as a whole. For example, the spatial dispersion lab occurs at about the midpoint of the semester and so I emphasize the following in the prep work page:
“At this time, we're about halfway through the course, so I would like to take some time to map out where we've been and where we'll be heading next. To do so, let's refer back to our definition of ecology, which is the study of the abundance and distribution of organisms and how they interact with each other and the environment.
​
During the first half of this course, we focused on generating the skills necessary to conduct ecological research (Weeks 1-2) and identify how species respond to environmental stressors (Week 3). We then covered important concepts predominantly related to understanding the abundance of individuals at the genetic/phenotypic (Week 4) and species scales (Weeks 5-6). We will now scale up to understand the distribution and abundance of species at the community and ecosystems scales…”
Students were then quizzed on these materials and instructors were able to go through the results in class to target any confusion before the lab began. After the addition of this prep work to the course, students responded to anonymous feedback surveys with the following comments:
I think the prep work before coming to class has taught me the most about ecology
(Fall 2019, PCB3043L-002).
Prep work and quizzes are helpful in understanding the material better (Fall 2019, PCB3043L-002).
I really like the prep work that is assigned. It like gives a sneak peek into what we're going to be covering rather than just coming into class blind and just figuring it out (Spring 2020, PCB3043L-003).
Finally, I wanted to increase consistency and transparency across the different lab sections by introducing rubrics to the post-lab report assignments. These assignments make-up the largest percentage of the student’s grade in the class and yet were graded differently by each TA and no clear instructions were given to students about how the assignments would be graded. Many of the post-lab report assignments in the course are Excel based and now follow the same rubric, so students know exactly what to expect and TAs know exactly what point value is assigned to what learning outcome.
Incorporating Human-Natural Systems
Once the course’s materials began to meet the basic structure taught in my college teaching prep course, I started making more personal adjustments. During my undergraduate career, I took multiple environmental anthropology courses that showed me the inextricable link between human perceptions, behaviors, and management practices with ecological systems and conditions. As I mentioned earlier, previous semesters of the Ecology lab often provided data with no context. In doing so, the labs failed to engage students in the full process of the scientific method from creating hypotheses based on observations to analyzing and reporting collected data. Previous student feedback included the following:
I do not really like that several of the labs are…entirely data based. It really felt like a waste of time to go to a lab and use fake numbers to make three graphs that do not really connect to anything…
(Fall 2017, PCB3043-006).
To combat this, I added in background information for each lab that went beyond just defining ecological concepts and, instead, contextualized the data we analyzed within the surrounding socio-environment so that students could make more realistic hypotheses. In the following materials, you can see the before and after background information for a dataset analyzing changes in fitness of deer populations. In Fall 2017, students were told that the deer came from County A and B with no further descriptions of how those counties differ ecologically, let alone socially or politically. Now, students are provided with an entire page of background information with figures and charts exploring how human population size and park management varies between the two counties and the possible effects that could have on the deer populations.
Fall 2017 Methods in Ecology II: Excel Tutorial Lab Handout
Fall 2020 Methods in Ecology II: Excel Tutorial Lab Handout
I further utilized data collected from Florida in as many labs as I could so students could better understand key socio-ecological issues in their own backyards.
I liked how the labs we worked on were dealing with issues in Florida, so it made it more interesting
(Fall 2020, PCB3043L-002).
Identifying Marketable Skills
Adding socio-ecological context to the background information not only made the labs more realistic, it also added another marketable skill for students taking the course: generating testable hypotheses. While the corresponding Principles of Ecology lecture course focuses on introducing ecological concepts, I wanted the lab to focus on skill-building that would be beneficial to students in the job market. Key skills now taught include: designing experiments, collecting and analyzing data, and communicating findings to scientific and general audiences.
While the lab already relied heavily on the use of Excel, I created assignments that utilized different aspects of the program like pivot tables and t-tests. I also created two new labs that incorporated ArcMAP as a tool that students could learn and market to potential employers. When I first started teaching the Principles of Ecology course, the spatial dispersion lab required students to calculate species’ dispersion patterns (e.g., whether species clumped together in groups or were arranged more uniformly due to territories or hunting preferences) by hand and ignored ArcMAP as a key data analysis and visualization tool used by numerous ecologists. During my summer GAship, I created two labs that could be paired with the current spatial dispersion lab so that students could compare and contrast methods. Unfortunately, with the transition to online teaching following the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, ArcMAP has become too complicated to use in lab as students would need additional instructions for downloading the program onto their home computers. I hope to cycle this lab back into the schedule as we move back to in-person teaching and utilize new ESRI apps to make the Excel- and ArcMAP-based labs even more aligned.
Principles of Ecology Spatial Dispersion & Analysis
Lesson Plan
Click below for a zoomed out picture of the timing and activities required as part of this activity. A rubric for assessment is also included.
Background Info
Click below for the background information provided for students to help them create hypotheses to test and data collection instructions.
Data Analysis
Click below for the data analysis instructions provided for students to complete the lab in ArcMAP.
Another key skill not previously incorporated into the lab was the use of presentations to help students build science communication skills. To combat this, I alternated presentation assignments with the Excel data analysis reports, where students would present in groups to pre-selected audiences (e.g., scientific community, newspaper reported, elected official, or family member). These assignments help improve the students’ ability to both synthesize their work and tailor it to different audiences. These presentations also often include debates during the Q&A that underscore the importance of consensus as a key part of the scientific process. The rubric below illustrates how student presentation assignments were graded in Fall 2019 and Spring 2020. Though, again, the transition to online made these presentations more difficult to achieve, I intend to advocate for their use in future in-person semesters.
Examples of student feedback about the incorporation of these marketable skills are included below:
For anyone looking to do any research in the future, the material in this class is a good way to gauge if you think you are up for the challenge of interpreting data and what it means
(Fall 2020, PCB3043L-004).
I’ve found that learning how to [n]avigate Excel is an important skill[.] I have learned to present data in a neat and organized manner (Fall 2019, PCB3043L-002).
…[I] like how this course is preparing me for how to communicate my research to people in a way they understand and also how to analyze our data (Fall 2019, PCB3043L-002).
The labs where we analyze data using excel are helpful because excel is a practical useful tool and also helps to understand the equations associated with the [lecture] course
(Spring 2020, PCB 3043L-003).
I have increased my excel skills a lot since being in this class. I have also learned how much it takes for ecologist to process their data in order to understand what they collected
(Spring 2020, PCB3043L-003).
Transitioning to Online Learning during the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic
While not part of any of my teaching plans, I thought I would add some comments about having to transition the Principles of Ecology lab course online following the Covid-19 outbreak. Though the Spring 2020 transition had to be quick with little time for preparation, myself and Stephen Hesterberg, another Ecology TA, had the opportunity to make some purposeful adjustments ahead of the Fall 2020 semester. Specifically, Stephen worked on creating assignments for a semester-long project where students could continue to practice their science communication skills by creating an interpretive sign of key ecosystems in USF Riverfront Park. This replaced the midterm and final exams which both Stephen and I thought were not as well suited for online delivery. While Stephen worked on that, I transitioned the field-based labs. One of my favorite transitioned labs is “Community Ecology Part I” (resources attached below), which allows students to still glean field sampling skills like how to place quadrats and transects as well as when random versus systematic sampling is appropriate. This lab replaced conducting actual transect sampling in USF Riverfront Park across a wetland-to-upland gradient.
Principles of Ecology Community Ecology Part I
Background Info
Click below for the background information provided to students as context for the lab activities.
Data Analysis
Click below for the lab activities instructions, which guide students through sampling strategies and more.
When the class was transferred to online Jessica did discussion boards so we can ask questions during class time. She also adjusted quiz time after getting feedback about the time limit being too short. Jessica made the transition to online much easier (Spring 2020, PCB 3043L-003).
Despite being transitioned to online, I appreciate the effort that went into making sure this class wasn't a washed up version of its in class predecessor…Overall, one of my more favorite labs here at USF (Fall 2020, PCB 3043L-004).
I know it was hard teaching virtually, but you made it look so easy (Fall 2020, PCB 3043L-002).
Acknowledgements: None of the changes to the Ecology lab described above would have been possible without funding and support from the Integrative Biology department. Additionally, the Principles of Ecology lecture instructors, including Dr. David Lewis, Dr. Earl McCoy, and Dr. Amber Brace, all contributed ideas and encouragement for many of changes highlighted above. Several Ecology lab teaching assistants also contributed ideas, helped proofread materials, and provided feedback following teaching including Stephen Hesterberg, Elizabeth Salewski, Christopher (Cole) Duckett, Maria Ceron Castilla, Wesley Anderson, Eva Muir, and Grace Henderson.
Want to read some student feedback and reviews?