Promoting Field Studies
The Essential Importance of Field Education
With generous support from the National Science Foundation, we led a national effort to address a crisis in biology education—the decline of programs that take students into the field for deep engagement with nature. In March 2016 we convened a four-day working group meeting to look at the value behind field experiences for students, the trends and roadblocks that may hinder institutions and instructors from bringing classes into the field, and potential solutions to these problems.
This collaborative project yielded the following six tangible outcomes:
Project Outcomes
The Decline in Field Studies: Proactive Strategies for Essential Training for the Next Generation of Biological Researchers, was held March 3-6, 2016, at the Natural History Institute at Prescott College, thanks to generous funding from a National Science Foundation grant. The links below lead to the workshop’s wiki and contain details related to the project including: the abstract, a list of participants and their bios, the agenda for the weekend, and a list of links to recommended reading. Make note, several pages are only accessible to project participants.