This is anecdotal from my own experience, but I hope it shows why I give solid support for teaching ecology in primary and secondary schools and in the first semester of college.
I took field courses in 10th grade through a special program offered by the Fernbank Science Center, Atlanta, GA. I had a week of astronomy, a week of ornithology (with bird banding), a week of geology, a week of dendrology (surveying for dominance and density), a week with a scanning electron microscope, a week of physics, etc., for the whole semester (we had math for 1-2 hours every morning). This perked up my interest in science and kept it going through standard high school biology classes (all memorization and dissection) to the extent I declared myself a biology major when applying to Earlham College, Richmond, IN. Then and now, the introductory course for all biology majors is Ecological Biology (also offered as a science elective). When I was there, we used Ricklefs Economy of Nature. In this class, we got our grounding in library and field research and in writing scientific papers. I credit the fact I'm an ecologist to my beginning experiences with Fernbank and Earlham's Ecological Biology. The fact Earlham followed Ecological Biology with solid courses in evolution, field botany, population ecology, and animal behavior, was all to the good, including keeping me going through genetics and cell biology (and memorizing the Krebs Cycle). Having to design, implement, analyze, and present field research in each class was especially important. So, I think ecology should be taught at all levels for many of the reasons already stated, most especially because it brings the students back to whatever natural world they still have around them. For elementary school kids, it would be good to blend environmental science with ecology, because they should start learning early about the natural world they live in and how it is changing. CL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cara Lin Bridgman P.O. Box 013 Phone: 886-4-2632-5484 Longjing Sinjhuang Taichung County 434 Taiwan http://megaview.com.tw/~caralin/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
