TY - JOUR
T1 - Place-Based Learning with Out-of-Place Species & Students
T2 - Teaching International Students about Biological Invasions
AU - Barnes, Matthew A.
AU - Cox, Robert D.
AU - Spott, Jessica
N1 - Funding Information:
This activity was hosted by Texas Tech University STEM Center for Outreach, Research and Education (STEM CORE) and the Texas Tech University Department of Natural Resources Management. Thanks to Dr. Jerry Dwyer for encouragement to put this lesson together. Mark Johnson assisted with instruction during the field activity.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 National Association of Biology Teachers. All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/9/1
Y1 - 2019/9/1
N2 - Place-based instruction allows students to explore learned concepts while building emotional connections with the location in which they are studying. Furthermore, the case for experiential science education continues to grow, and such pedagogy may be particularly beneficial to learning in ecology and environmental science. We present an experiential, place-based pedagogy aimed at introducing international high school or undergraduate students to the concept of biological invasions. Our lesson began by introducing our class, a group of Chinese high school students in a summer program in the United States, with examples of invasive species that had previously been introduced from China into the United States or vice versa. Guided discussion then focused on plant and animal species with which the students had some familiarity and covered concepts of biological invasions more generally. Next, students participated in a field activity exploring the ecology of the invasive tumbleweed Salsola tragus, a Eurasian (including much of China) species that has invaded the United States. Through classroom and field activity, students gained understanding of biological invasions, and we believe that internalization was enhanced by connecting the lesson with students' own experiences and participation in basic scientific methods and ecological fieldwork.
AB - Place-based instruction allows students to explore learned concepts while building emotional connections with the location in which they are studying. Furthermore, the case for experiential science education continues to grow, and such pedagogy may be particularly beneficial to learning in ecology and environmental science. We present an experiential, place-based pedagogy aimed at introducing international high school or undergraduate students to the concept of biological invasions. Our lesson began by introducing our class, a group of Chinese high school students in a summer program in the United States, with examples of invasive species that had previously been introduced from China into the United States or vice versa. Guided discussion then focused on plant and animal species with which the students had some familiarity and covered concepts of biological invasions more generally. Next, students participated in a field activity exploring the ecology of the invasive tumbleweed Salsola tragus, a Eurasian (including much of China) species that has invaded the United States. Through classroom and field activity, students gained understanding of biological invasions, and we believe that internalization was enhanced by connecting the lesson with students' own experiences and participation in basic scientific methods and ecological fieldwork.
KW - Active learning
KW - experiential learning
KW - nonindigenous
KW - nonnative
KW - place-based learning
KW - range plant ecology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85073673104&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1525/abt.2019.81.7.503
DO - 10.1525/abt.2019.81.7.503
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85073673104
VL - 81
SP - 503
EP - 506
JO - American Biology Teacher
JF - American Biology Teacher
SN - 0002-7685
IS - 7
ER -