OOS 30: Expanding the Field in Fieldwork: Connecting the Practice of Fieldwork with the Human Dimensions of the 4DEE Framework

Session Organizer(s)

• Luanna Prevost

  Dept. of Integrative Biology, University of South Florida
  Tampa, FL, USA

Moderator(s)

• Charles Nilon

  University of Missouri
  Columbia, MO, USA

Volunteer(s)

• Andrea Valcarcel Abud

Session Organizer(s)

• Kari O'Connell

  Oregon State University
  Corvallis, OR, USA

Field work, historically conceptualized in and for remote and pristine natural environments, is most often taught in contextually-similar spaces. However, in response to covid-19 and shifts to non-traditional ecological studies, this OOS asks for a re-imagination of the contexts and platforms of both the field and field work. Talks will focus on how the space in which field work takes place can be redefined, how these approaches might serve to encourage participation by diverse groups of students and how such changes might fit into the Four Dimensional Ecology Education (4DEE) framework. Discussion will consider: 1) how to make one's home and local environment into the field, 2) how redefining the field increases student access to address economic, physical and social barriers, 3) how to include the human community as part of the field to address issues of environmental justice, 4) how sense of place links with the field, and 5) what it means to make the field virtual. In reimagining and implementing new concepts and approaches to teaching field studies, it's critical to ensure how to connect and integrate across dimensions, a key feature of the 4DEE framework. This OOS will illustrate how to integrate field work with various components of the human-environment dimension by considering how to connect field work with issues of ethics, justice and sustainability and how to use the field experience to examine human impacts on the environment. Speakers will present examples from a range of institutional contexts including virtual teaching modules, ecology courses, REU sites, and citizen-science in research projects.

Presentations:

• ON DEMAND

  A 4DEE approach to evaluating ecological literacy in an environmental science course using citizen science projects
  

  Presenting Author: Zakiya Leggett – North Carolina State University
• ON DEMAND

  Blending real and virtual experiences to support understanding of science practices in the field
  

  Presenting Author: Amy Kamarainen – Salmon Coast Field Station
• ON DEMAND

  Bringing ecology home: Using the amazing biodiversity of backyard pollinators and nocturnal lepidoptera to teach ecological and data science literacy
  

  Presenting Author: Gretchen LeBuhn – Biology, San Francisco State University
• ON DEMAND

  From street space to virtual space: Updating the crosstown walk
  

  Presenting Author: George Middendorf – Biology, Howard University
• ON DEMAND

  Incorporating identity, place, and culture into a virtual REU experience: The research experience for undergraduates on sustainable land and water resources in summer 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic
  

  Presenting Author: Diana Dalbotten – St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, University of Minnesota
• ON DEMAND

  Reimagining the field to connect across barriers
  

  Presenting Author: Alan Berkowitz – Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies