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Inspire Session

Session: Advice from the Field: Practical Skills, Coping with Accessibility Challenges, and What Else You Need to Know

INS 4-8 - Strategies for successfully managing and leading fieldwork as a graduate student

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM EDT

Location: 520B

Presenting Author(s)

KH

Katherine Hayes

University of Colorado, United States

Co-author(s)

TC

Trevor Carter

University of Colorado Denver, United States
PC

Phoebe Cook

University of Virginia
ET

Erin Twaddell

University of Colorado Denver, United States
BB

Brian Buma

University of Colorado Denver
Denver, CO, United States

Conducting fieldwork can be fundamental to completing an ecology graduate degree, yet little formal training and resources exist to support graduate students, particularly in developing skills required to lead fieldwork successfully. Our objectives were to collect general advice for graduate students leading fieldwork, solicit specific suggestions on actions to take before/during/after field seasons and to produce a series of policy recommendations for labs, departments, and universities. We developed a survey to solicit advice and distributed widely to the ecological scientific community. We present survey responses, resources to prepare for leading fieldwork and policy recommendations to support graduate student field leaders.