Workshop Title: But we don’t teach ecology!

Description: 

Do you teach an introductory biology course, or a general biology course for non-majors? Is the topic of ecology, especially including tropical biology included in your course, beyond the topic of biomes? Generally, if ecology is covered at all, ‘biomes’ is the only topic covered. Do you find that students get excited about memorizing information about biomes? We think not! We find that providing an immersive, online experience in case studies based on authentic tropical research not only sparks student interest in biology, but prepares them for tackling complex problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and forest restoration — and better yet — strategizing how to overcome these issues. 

Participants in the OCELOTS (Online Content for Experiential Learning of Tropical Systems) project have thus far created ~20 open-access modules in tropical biology that are available for use in your courses. How could these cool tropical modules get incorporated into your teaching? What are the barriers to using these modules in your courses? We are starting a working group to bring together community college and other instructors who would like to adapt these modules for their teaching, and pass along the how-to’s to other instructors.

 Pre-workshop materials:

• OCELOTS Introduction powerpoint (2 min) [Deb: could I use the one that already made for the Leaders Summit?]
• Check out our Instagram posts: [hopefully, coming soon]
• Take a look at these OCELOTS modules (or just peruse ‘Online modules’ on our website):
  • Snapshot Serengeti
  • Healing the scars: Tropical rain forest carbon cycling
  • Colorful wings and messages
  • Sounds of the tropics
  • Functional trait-based restoration
• Choose one module that you think you could adapt for a course that you teach, and come prepared to the workshop with your preliminary ideas about:
  • The barriers to use in your teaching
  • How to overcome the barriers