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248 Natural Resources and Environmental Issues Volume VII THE ROLE OF GRADUATE STUDENTS IN UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN NATURAL RESOURCES: A VIEW FROM WITHIN Keith J. Stewart, Pete Gomben, Don C. Bragg Department of Forest Resources, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, 84322-5215 ABSTRACT: Concern has recently arisen on the changing role graduate students play in natural resources education at the university level. For example, there is the perception that an M.S. degree is little more than a preliminary step towards a Ph.D., rather than having its own quantifiable merits. Questions have also been raised about the degree of professionalism exhibited by graduate students, the expectations faculty have of students and the expectations students have of faculty. We hope to address concerns we as doctoral students in the Department of Forest Resources at Utah State University have regarding our academic and professional environment. With this as a context for discussion, we plan to evaluate possible changes to be made to the educational surroundings to create an environment more conducive to academic and intellectual intercourse between graduate students, faculty and other professionals. The graduate students of today are the faculty and resource/policy managers of tomorrow, so their academic success and satisfaction is essential to the success of future generations. A re-evaluation of the roles graduate students play within educational constructs may be in order. We feel that graduate students should be more involved in the decisions affecting their education, the personal and professional development of undergraduate students and other graduate students and demonstrate greater interest in treating graduate work more professionally. In addition, we believe faculty should show more leadership in developing a dynamic and challenging graduate curriculum, should facilitate greater contacts with other students across disciplines and provide an environment conducive to the professional development of graduate students. Encouraging and sustaining social and academic interactions is the responsibility of all members of the department. Without such interactions a fundamental aspect of graduate education and personal development is sorely lacking. This deficiency could have cascading detrimental effects, including less effective natural resource and policy decisions, communication failures and misunderstandings and, potentially, a disintegration of our academic system. We hope the themes arising from our presentation will be further developed at a later round-table discussion in this conference.
1998 University Education in Natural Resources 249 TEACHING NATURAL RESOURCES POLICY THROUGH CASE STUDIES, AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT AND THE INTERNET Alan E. Webber 1 and Dr. Donald Crews 2 1 Master of Sciences Candidate, Department of Forest Sciences, and Master of Arts Candidate, Department of Political Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, e-mail explorer@holly.ColoState.edu. 2 Assistant Professor, Department of Forest Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, e-mail don@cnr.ColoState.edu. ABSTRACT: The teaching of natural resources and environmental policy does not lend itself well to the traditional methods of teaching found in the field of natural resources. Instead, a teaching triangle composed of methods from the social sciences and the application of technology allow for a more complete and thorough understanding of the subject by the student. Use of case studies forms the basis of this teaching method, removing the abstractness of the subject and showing the actual field application of what is taught. Authentic assessment or reliable evaluation methods expand the students thinking on the subject while giving the instructor a solid indicator of student learning. Finally, the Internet and the use of a listserve provide for information access and instructor-student interaction not possible before. INTRODUCTION People are drawn to the natural resources professions because they believe it is here that they can spend time in the great outdoors, helping preserve nature’s beauty while making a livable wage. Yet, ask anyone who has been in the profession for more then five years what they spend most of their time doing. They are Likely to answer that they spend the built of their time dealing with government policy and regulation. Some have even gone so far as to saSI they should have completed degrees in political science, public administration, policy or government instead of a natural resources field. The challenge then becomes how do we educate tomorrow’s natural resource manager, someone who Likely wants nothing to do with government regulation and policy, about these same subjects, subjects critical to their professional growth. The answer is through the use of a teaching triangle composed of case studies, non-traditional teaching methods and modern technol~gy as a complimentary resource. USE OF CASE STUDIES The use of case studies is a key component in teaching policy to future natural resource professionals, something that is broadly used in the social sciences. Usually, natural resources students do not have the general political science, public administration, government and policy background that is needed to work with environmental and natural resources policy in the theoretical sense, nor is the theoretical application of that knowledge of much use. What is of use is an explanation of the basics of these fields; then specifics, on how these can be practically applied. The use of case studies allows the students to see how the concepts of policy and public administration are components of natural resources policy and why it is important for them to have a basic understanding of these fields. It also allows for a higher level of interaction between the student and the instructor; not so much lecturing, teaching and grading, but leading, mentoring, constructive criticism and evaluation. RELIABLE EVALUATION OF STUDENT LEARNING The second key to this triangle is the use of what would be considered nontraditional teaching methods in the field of natural resources. With few exceptions, the field of natural resources is, by its very nature, a predominately quantitative type field. Natural resources policy is one of those exceptions. Quantitative fields are generally thought to be best taught by using lecture and labs, then testing for understanding and memorization of the concepts and facts presented. Policy, being a qualitative field, does not adhere to this method. It is possible to test a basic understanding of the concepts presented, becomes much more difficult to check and see if the student understands how these concepts interact and if they can express this relationship. So instead of
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Acknowledgments This publication re
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INDEX BY SESSION Sunday, March 8, P
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Teaching Methods: Collaborative Lea
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The Upper Midwest Regional Capstone
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INDEX BY AUTHOR if first author, pa
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INTEGRATED NATURAL RESOURCE PLANNIN
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TEACHING CORE VALUES: SOME QUESTION
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WRITING AND FISHERIES AND WILDLIFE
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THE INTERDISCIPLINARY NATURAL RESOU
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NEW IDEAS FOR TEACHING NATURAL RESO
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ASSESSING A FORESTRY EDUCATION: THE
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A GRAPHICAL SURFACE-VEGETATION-ATMO
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NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT - THE C
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EDUCATION’S ROLE IN SUSTAINABLE D
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AN ETHICS PRIMER FOR UNIVERSITY STU
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THE KENYA MODEL: DEVELOPMENT AND IM
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NATURAL RESOURCE EDUCATION: GETTING
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AUDIO TAPES VS. INTERACTIVE COMPUTE
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WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM EFFOR
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