Background/Question/Methods Recent years have seen a flourishing of new approaches in ecological education and training at the undergraduate and graduate levels. From increasing integration of data analysis and programming skills, to a greater recognition of the vital interactions between social and environmental systems, to integration of authentic research experiences in the course context, all of these approaches have sought to teach students the practice and application, as well as the concepts, of ecological science. The 4 Dimensional Ecology Education (4DEE) framework provides a useful scaffold for building these types of approaches into undergraduate classes. This presentation will focus on the integration of 4DEE-inspired ecological concepts into a microbiology class, highlighting the value of integrating the framework into adjacent biological disciplines. Further, it will highlight how sharing of pedagogical approaches through faculty mentoring and other professional networks can facilitate innovation across the curriculum. Results/Conclusions This talk will share outcomes from an undergraduate microbiology lab class that was designed as a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) that included principles from the 4DEE framework. Students worked individually and collectively to characterize the environmental microbiota of the university campus and surrounding urban environment. The concepts and approaches used in building the course drew from approaches within and beyond Ecology, including pedagogical approaches borrowed from data science. While not all undergraduate students will take even an introductory Ecology class while in college, the broad applicability of ecological thinking and principles, as reflected in the 4DEE framework, can be integrated into other courses as well.
