Background
Teaching ecology : Ecology class is a faculty favorite for several reasons. For those of us with backgrounds in conservation biology, biodiversity, and evolution, teaching ecology is like spending time with a dear friend. We get to revisit the ideas and concepts that made us passionate about biology in the first place and our excitement is vivid, tangible, and uncontainable. Our love for the subject bubbles over when we lecture, when we explain a lab procedure, or when we get behind the wheel of our 15-passenger vans full of eager students. Ecology class requires us to take ourselves a little less seriously. We kneel in the dirt, sweat while climbing the trail, and get mud under our fingernails while showing our students the interconnected beauty of the world. Ecology class is a great equalizer. Each person in the room, student and faculty alike, breathe the same air and are exposed to the same environmental factors, reminding us that we’re all in this together. Our differences are less notable when we’re crouching by the same stream or posing for a selfie together in front of a waterfall. Ecology class welcomes innovation and ambiguity. Students create novel experiments knowing that they are in control of the research and interpretation. Fundamentally, ecology class highlights two major principles in the sciences: change is the only constant; and no organism exists in isolation.
Challenges to moving online : Moving our ecology materials online left us with a sense of loss. We mourn the cancelled fieldwork, class trips, and group hikes. We lament the loss of hands-on learning that ecology class encourages, the walks around campus, the exploration of what is hidden in plain sight. Specifically, we rue the way remote learning highlights the inequity in our classrooms. Students who lack computers are relegated to working from smart phones or ancient tablets. Those who lack Internet spend hours sitting in front of McDonalds in order to use the free WIFI the filters into the parking lot. Many of our students are parents, now suddenly teachers themselves trying to figure out how to navigate childcare while still submitting assignments on time. Some are newly unemployed, fighting for income however they can, working night shifts and overtime, or several jobs at once. Too many of our students are dealing with several of the above simultaneously. We miss the classroom chatter, the smiles, the eye contact, the ability to check in with each person, and the way we used to be able say “I’m here for you” without having to say anything. While we fight the unmistakable unfairness of this situation as best we can, we take comfort in knowing that those two core principles of ecology are still true. Change is constant, and we will adapt to this new normal. No organism exists in isolation, even when sheltering in place forces us to hold class alone in our homes.
Current task : We want to bring connections and interactions to the forefront, make the material flexible and accessible, and highlight the joy of fieldwork while knowing that experiencing the outdoors during a pandemic will look different for each student. Below is an example of how we’re attempting to keep the joy of discovery and connection of ecology class alive while moving our instruction online.