Integrating Policy and Land Management Issues into a Natural Sciences Education: Teaching Environmental Sciences on the lower San Juan River, Utah

ABSTRACT

The Environmental Sciences Program at Northern Arizona University lay opened an interdisciplinary field course combining natural sciences (geology biology, and chemistry), policy and land management center upon a place-based set or question at issues The course consists of a campus-based semester of research of scientific, management, and political issues surrounding the lower San Juan River basin of southeastern Utah. learners then spend eight days upon the river conducting scientific studies and discussing their management and policy implications.

The desired learning issue of the course is for learners to be able to integrate compound environmental field data, and the course make and evaluation criteria emphasize this. scholars work in large and small collections on problems that combine geomorphology, geochemistry, and ecology similar as stream terraces, soils, and the plant communities they support, soil disclosure and chemistry under native and non-native vegetation, and biological soil crusts and soil exhibition in arid lands. Discussions upon the management and political implications of the students' findings give a "real-world" relevance to their work. Conducting a field class upon a remote river presents a number of difficulties and opportunities. River logistics are handled by means of a commercial outfitter so professors can concentrate upon academic issues.

INTRODUCTION

Field education gives scholars the opportunity to develop their abilities the two to think in four dimensions (space plus time) and to proceed through the process of iterative decision-making. The exhibition of these skills is critical for scholars who intend to work in the areas of geology and environmental sciences. At Northern Arizona University (NAU), the Environmental Sciences program unraveled its current field-oriented curriculum about a decade ago, relying upon 3-hour labs during the week and weekend-long field trips. pupils learned techniques and how to think in four dimensions, on the contrary due to the typically short duration of their field casts did not experience the replete iterative process by which studies are conceived, designed, and carried without We decided to develop a longer field course that allows scholars to delve deeper into questions, and more abundantly understand the connections between different natural science disciplines (eg biology, chemistry, geology) as well as between trie natural and social sciences (eg communications, education, political science). Our learning goal was for the pupils to develop a high horizontal of sophistication in their integration of data from different control areas and to understand the connection between policy and the natural combination of parts to form a whole they study.

Conceptual Basis For The Course - sum of two units of the three authors participated in the Science and Education for novel Civic Engagements and Responsibilities (SENCER) 2002 Summer Institute. The SENCER pattern is "to teach 'through' mingled capacious, unresolved public issues 'to' the basic science required to comprehend them" (Flower, 2000; SENCER 2005) Several of the SENCER courses serv as archetypes for the development of an reach outed field course. The "Chemistry and the Environment" (Schacter, 2002) and the "Energy and the Environment" (Jordan, 2002) SENCER patterns are exemplary courses that emphasize problem-oriented approaches to a variety of environmental point in disputes Schacter (2002) uses a clump organizational approach to address community-based environmental issues from one side student-driven scientific research projects. Jordan (2002) uses "contemporary environmental issues as a framework for introducing foundational principles..." and explores by what mode these issues are related to public policy end class discussions, in-class problem solving, and cluster research projects.

These approaches are readily adaptable to an reach forthed field course because they are problem-oriented, inquiry-based, and integrate local environmental issues. by means of choosing local issues and research sites, pupils have the opportunity to take pleasure in both problem-based learning (solving real-world problems) and inquiry-based learning (designing and conducting their have a title to investigations), both methods considered to be effective at enhancing scientific literacy (Siebert and Mclntosh, 2001)

Additionally, we spring [i]or[/i] leap on one leg [i]or[/i] footed this course would help scholars understand the necessary interaction between science and policy. Therefore, the field area exigencyed to have significant scientific and policy issues. Water obeys as the nexus for greatest in quantity environmental sciences and policy in the southwestern USA. The lower San Juan River, located about 300 km northeast of NAU (Figure 1) is a perennial stream with a great number of relevant scientific and policy issues. As a teaching field area, the San Juan River corridor provides a combination of extraordinary geological features, environmental gradients, a lengthy history of occupation, and a variety of new land use practices and jurisdictions.

NAU Environmental Sciences - NAU is a publicly assisted university with about 13000 undergraduate learners and 6,000 graduate students. NAU has a large minority undergraduate population, primarily Native Americans and Hispanic Americans, many of whom draw near from, and often return to, a rural or a reservation community. About 40 Environmental Science majors graduate by means of year. Most continue in environmental elds; many proceed into entry-level jobs in environmental management (eg US Forest Service), while others try to find further training in graduate gymnasium Our current cohort of fulltime undergraduate Environmental Science majors includes 80% Native American, 88% Hispanic/Latino, and 12% Black or African American learners and is 52% female and 48% male.