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Electronic TEGPublished in TEG news issue 27, Spring 2001, by the British Ecological Society. Slingsby goes WestDavid Slingsby What it was like to take part in the annual meeting of the American Ecological Society 2000The focus of the 2000 annual meeting of the American Society of America (ESA) was the communication of ecology and this seemed a timely moment for us to develop links with our American cousins. I was very privileged to have the opportunity to visit ESA as an official representative of the BES in general and of our Education, Training and Careers Committee (ETCC) in particular. KananaskisThe first leg of my journey took me to Calgary, Alberta where I was collected at the airport and taken past the Stoney Indian Reservation up into the Rockies near Canmore to the Kananaskis Field Station where I met Michael Mappin who made me very welcome and with whom I was to work for the next ten days. The Kananaskis Field Station belongs to the University of Calgary and whilst I was there I was able to see some teaching of undergraduates and hear them enthusiastically reporting back the outcomes of their field course project work. When the students referred to 'our distinguished guest'. I wondered who they meant until I realised it was me. Michael Mappin, who comes from a chalk-face school teaching background runs the Field Station's rapidly developing outreach programme. Field study centres for school pupils are much less common in Alberta than in the UK but Kananaskis offers an impressive range of school field courses for a wide age range which it sees as an important part of its mission, alongside undergraduate teaching and ecological research. Michael is now developing yet another dimension to the centre's activities as Kananaskis becomes involved in research into Ecological and Environmental Education promising to become a centre of excellence in that too. While I was there I joined a group of environmental educators discussing local issues. Accommodation is provided in substantial wooden chalets scattered around the grounds amongst conifers, birds and ground squirrels. I understand there are grizzly bears too but I was disappointed not to meet one as I went back to my chalet. The food is very good and the centre is well equipped in every respect. The mountains are made of white rock and the lakes have glacially green water. And you can get very good locally brewed bitter served in pints at the pub in Canmore. Michael is a member of the Human Affairs Committee of ESA and of the Education Group. During my two days there we put together our workshop for the coming conference. Michael is very much a champion of ecological education involving hands-on science and is interested in the perceived divide between science-based ecology and environmental education. The latter is more prominent in North American schools than in the UK National Curriculum but many of the issues are the same as have been discussed in TEG news many times in the past. One thing which surprised me is that Geography is not an important school subject in Alberta, or, indeed, in several other Canadian provinces. Some of what they might call environmental education we might consider Geography. To Snowbird via the Oregan TrailMy stay in Canada lasted but two days - but I did pack a lot in. Michael took me by car through part of the Rockies, across the Canadian prairies and over the US frontier into Montana. At the border a man with a gun inspected my passport and asked me whether I had any fruit. I told him I didn't and he must have thought I looked honest. My Wild West journey took me through Idaho, along part of the Oregan trail taken by wagon trains through Indian country in the past, through arid expanses of larva beds before turning off into Utah, passing between the Great Salt Lake and the city which bares its name. Salt Lake City is a mere 4400ft above sea level whilst the conference took place at 8000ft at the Ski resort of Snowbird in the mountains to the east, up Cottonwood canyon. The scenery was spectacular as the surrounding mountains reached over 11,000ft. The altitude meant it was pleasantly warm rather hot. Rather different to the preceding conference I had attended, BES Winter Meeting in a snowy Leeds campus in chilly December 1999. The American Ecological SocietyWhilst BES claims to be the oldest ecological society in the World its American cousin, perhaps not surprisingly, claims to be the largest (with over 7000 members compared to the BES with over 5000 members) but in reality the two organisations have a lot in common. They both have an annual meeting with a similar format. The programme includes a lot of parallel sessions each with 20 minutes per presentation and a chairperson making sure everyone keeps to time. There are poster displays and book exhibitions, an annual general meeting at which prizes and honorary memberships are presented, evening discussions organised by specialist groups and, after the day's work is done, plenty of beer is drunk. The Human Affairs and Resources Committee embodies the functions of our Education, Training and Careers Committee as well as those of the Public Affairs Committee. It is the centre of a group of specialist groups, of which the Education Group is one. Each of the groups has a chair and has representation on the Human Affairs Committee. I was attended the two meetings of the Human Affairs and Resources Committee as an 'official' visitor – these took place early in the morning and included breakfast. I hesitate to say this in case the idea catches on in BES. Whilst I was there Alan Berkovitz (who has been our own guest at the last BES Winter Meeting in Warwick) handed over the chair of the committee to Carol Brewer. I was impressed by how much there was going on and by the impressive number of people who were actively involved. Many ESA initiatives are funded outside agencies and Susan Musante, one of the permanent staff, is responsible for managing these projects. I was made very welcome and found plenty to think about. The Education GroupThis is roughly equivalent to the Teaching Ecology Group. The meeting was very informal, attended by over 50, there was food and drink available (definitely an improvement on the teaching ecology evening session at BES) and the most formal part consisted of listing ideas that the Society might consider carrying out. The focus of the education group in the ESA is very much on teaching ecology to undergraduates although there is an awareness that there was a need to become more involved in 'K to 12' meaning 'Kindergarten to 12th grade' – in other words Primary, Secondary and the equivalent of A level and Highers. I did meet a few K to 12 teachers at ESA and those I did were keen to talk to me about the role of K to 12 teachers in the BES and ecology in science teaching in the UK. But Michael was the only person I met from a school background who was deeply involved in the work of ESA at a Committee level. Whilst I felt that we in the BES were more tuned into 'K to 12'. I was interested in their approach to ecology teaching at College and University level since we in ETCC are keen to develop this aspect of our brief. In ESA the education group have an interest in innovative approaches to teaching undergraduates which are both philosophical and practical, for example, the promotion of an 'inquiry' approach rather than a traditionally didactic one. A current project is entitled TIEE - 'Teaching Issues & Experiments in Ecology' which jointly funded by ESA and the National Science Foundation and is a product of the ESA Human Affairs and Resources Committee. The outcome will be web-based: http://www.science.widener.edu/~grant/esa/tiee/tiee.html ...and aims to improve teaching and student learning through innovative lecture and lab activities, and to develop and disseminate peer-reviewed ecological educational curricula undergraduate faculty can adopt and use. It is being organised by Charlene D'Avanzo, Bruce Grant and Susan Musante. At an ESA Winter Meeting dedicated to communication, Human Affairs and Resources Committee presented a challenging and thought-provoking thematic session which attempted define generically Ecological Thinking and represented a fitting climax to Alan Berkovitz's term as Vice President and Chair of the Committee. The published account of this will be essential reading for all interested in ecological education. What did I do at Snowbird?I have already mentioned attending meetings of Human affairs and Resources Committee and of the Education Committee and of meeting some interesting people. On my first day at the conference I attended the 'Ecological Thinking' symposium. At the end a panel were asked for immediate reaction. After listening to a series of excellent speakers I found myself as the first member of the panel to talk for five minutes off the cuff about my reaction. I also had lunch with the contributors. The evening workshop which I did with Michael lasted 2 hours and was very well attended (about 100 people). I gave a presentation lasting 30 minutes called 'Perceptions of Ecology' followed by discussion after which I gave a second presentation suggesting ways of presenting ecology illustrated by some BES initiatives such as the Brine Shrimp book, the Foodchain book, the Ecology Poster, TEG news, LifeScience 2000 and the Careers book. Talking about Brine Shrimps but a few miles from Salt Lake City was rather like taking coals to Newcastle. I was one of two speakers at a lunch devoted to disabled people in ecology. Like everything I went to at Snowbird it was very well attended - perhaps 100 people. I was given 15 minutes to speak off the cuff with a microphone from the perspective of a disabled ecologist. My fellow speaker, Michele Wheatley, came from Wright University, Dayton Ohio where she specialises in teaching disabled students I talked about the importance of one's perception of oneself, how everyone needs to learn how to cope with their limitations, about how I manage to run field courses at school and of experience as an Open University tutor and the OU's enlightened policy towards enabling the disabled to succeed. My audience seemed to listen very attentively and afterwards were keen to come to shake hands with me. It's strange how much easier it is to talk about coping with my own slowly deteriorating mobility to a room full of strangers 8000 miles away than I would at home. David Slingsby | ||||||
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teg
Issue 26
