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This is the
home-site for Field Ecology, a repeating program at the Evergreen
State College! Our current program s being offered as a spring
program in 2013 focusing on Forests and Prairies of the PNW.
This
program focuses on intensive group and individual field research in current
topics in ecology. Students intensively use the primary literature and
student-driven field research to address observations about ecological
composition, structure, and function in natural environments. Independent
and group research projects in relevant natural settings form the core of
our curriculum. In the past our program has ranged from the South Puget
Sound to the Southwestern US. In 2008, our program had three distinct
research sites ranging from the South Puget Sound prairies to the east side
of the North Cascades (the Sinlahekin Wildlife
Area near Loomis, WA). In 2010 (Spring) Our program once again conducted
research at Glacial Heritage Prairie and Preserve (WA), The Grand Canyon
(AZ), and Mt Rose (WA Olympic Mountains). In all Field Ecology programs,
research projects are quickly developed, and expanded on, in a fast-paced, big-ideas, constructive environment,
where the course forms a community working to make each project better.
Research projects presentations and writing workshops build these ideas
into workable products to share with the outside world. Science is a
creative endeavor at its core, and we capitalize on that by focusing on
application of new ideas in a synergistic interdisciplinary environment.
In 2008 and
2010 (Spring) we focused on plant and ecosystem ecology. This year (2010
Fall-2011 Spring) we again focused on both Ornithology (Birds) and Plant
Ecology. Our work has spanned projects in community ecology, ecosystem
ecology, physiology and plant-herbivore interactions, and trophic interactions. Topics of study in all programs
include forest structure, ecological restoration; riparian ecology; fire
history; ethnobotany; insect-plant interactions;
disturbance ecology; and the broad fields of biocomplexity
and ecological interactions. These topics and student projects are
crystallized through paper-writing workshops in which group and individual
papers are be produced. We emphasize
identification of original field research problems in diverse habitats,
experimentation, data analyses, oral presentation of findings, and writing
in journal format.
Check out
the description for our current upcoming program here:
http://www.evergreen.edu/catalog/2012-13/programs/fieldecologyforests-7762
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