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COURSE DESCRIPTION
 
 

Instructor: Bette Loiselle, 340 Research Bldg., 516-6224 (office), 725-3480 (home), loiselle@umsl.edu

Instructor office hours: 2-3:30 PM Tuesday/Thursday

Teaching Assistant: Lúcia Lohmann, 408 Research Bldg., 516-7997 (office), 664-3892 (home), lohmann@mobot.org

Time: Thursday evenings, 4:30-7:30 PM, 223e Research

            Saturday-Sunday or Thurs. late aft. - Sunday field trips (see schedule)
 

Course Objectives: The major objectives of this course are (1) to introduce students to major temperate ecosystems in the region (i.e., within 12-14 hour drive of St. Louis), and (2) to provide experience in asking ecological questions, designing field projects, and writing/presenting research proposals. The course resembles an OTS (Organization for Tropical Studies) field biology course. Emphasis, however, will be placed on learning about the biology of the major life zones and on developing research questions, designing field studies including developing statistical analyses to address hypothesis/question, and writing proposals.
 
 

Field Sites and Schedule: We will have 5-6 weekend and 1-2 Saturday trips. Weekend field trips will generally leave very early (i.e., 6 AM) on Saturday, except for our trips to Texas and Tennessee where we will leave late Thursday afternoon. You can anticipate returning very late on Sunday (i.e., 10 PM - midnight). The sites selected include national and state parks, private reserves, national forests, and ecological research areas. Major habitats to be visited include lakeshore dune successional areas, maple-beech climax forests, bogs, Ozark Mountain forests and waterways, bottomland forests, cypress swamp forest, extremely diverse (by temperate standards) eastern forests, spruce-fir forests, western mesquite woodlands and canyonland woods, and short grass prairie.
 
 

Special Requirements of Course: Perhaps most importantly, a good sense of humor and a great deal of patience. We will be camping out at most sites and thus we will be subject to the vagaries of the weather (i.e., expect wet and cold on some nights). Students will be expected to pay for some group meals and assist in cooking and buying food for 2-3 of the field trips. In the past, $5-10 per person per weekend trip has been sufficient. In addition, I will ask for a contribution of $50 to help defray camping, park fees, and travel costs. Thus, the total additional cost for the course is anticipated to be approximately $110.
 
 

Course Activities (see below as well): On Thursday evenings, we will do three things: (1) prepare logistically for the next field trip; (2) receive an introduction to the major habitats to be visited on the next weekend (i.e., on the upcoming Saturday and Sunday); (3) have student presentations of field projects or research proposals. Written materials on the next week's site will be available for you to examine in the Biology Office (next to copy machine) or will be available to download from the web via Loiselle's home page (http://www.umsl.edu/~loiselle).
 
 

Student Evaluation: Each student will orally present and write up 1 field project and 2 research proposals. Field project reports will be based on the results of a short group research project conducted in the field; papers should be written in a style designed for publication in a major ecological journal (i.e., follow style of Ecology). Research proposals will be based on questions/hypotheses developed at various field sites. You will design a field project (based on your introduction and/or preliminary data gathered on the previous week's field trip) and present the proposed project to the class. This presentation is expected to include (1) statement of the research question/hypothesis, (2) why the question is important from theoretical standpoint (i.e., why are we interested), (3) proposed experimental design, including information about appropriate statistical analyses to be used, (4) expected results and basis for these predictions, and (5) significance of work. Proposals should follow guidelines provided as clase as possible. Think of this exercise as writing a research proposal for an appropriate funding agency, or writing a mini-version of a doctoral dissertation improvement grant. Oral presentations will be limited to 15 minutes (12 minute presentation, 3 minute discussion period); written reports are limited to 10 pages double spaced, plus any additional figures, tables, literature cited, etc. Oral presentation of reports and proposals will occur roughly 11 days after the field trip (i.e., the second Thursday after the field trip). Written reports are due 1 week later (i.e., third Thursday following field trip). Students will likely be asked to rewrite reports following editorial comments by their peers and instructor. Grades will be based on both written and oral presentation, as well as group participation on field trips and during oral presentations. The tentative schedule is provided below. In order to facilitate oral presentations, you will need to sign up (first come, first serve) for a slot. One and only one of these should occur during a field project weekend, and 3 should fall on research proposal weekends. Be ready to sign-up for the semester during the second Tuesday night meeting.
 
 

Note: This schedule is subject to change - if you have any alternative suggestions, I am open to them.
 
 

          Date                                                          Oral Reports                                                                                      Written Reports
 

September 28	Pioneer Forest
October 5	Indiana Dunes & Warren Woods	Pioneer Forest
October 12	Great Smokies National Park	Indiana Dunes & Warren Woods
October 26	Tucker Prairie	Great Smokies National Park
November 2	Shawnee National Forest & Heron Pond	Tucker Prairie
November 9	Caprock Canyons State Park	Shawnee National Forest & Heron Pond
November 16	Cuivre River State Park	Caprock Canyons State Park
November 23	(No class)	Cuivre River State Park

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