Dr. Jill Anderson at the University of Georgia is searching for 2-5 enthusiastic graduate students in education or current high school teachers to participate in field research and a high school field ecology course from late July to mid-August 2018 (3 weeks) in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. This NSF-funded project aims to expose grad students in education to a diversity of research approaches, and provide them with tools and activities they can execute in their future classrooms. Interacting with other researchers at the Colorado field site will immerse prospective teachers in science, and foster exchanges that could provide inspiration for future curriculum development. The program takes place around the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab (http://www.rmbl.org/), which is located in Gothic, Colorado near the wildflower capital of Colorado (Crested Butte). Fieldwork will involve hiking through rough terrain at high elevations; the field site is located at 9448 feet above sea level.
During the first week of the program (July 23-27, 2018), the successful candidates will assist with ongoing fieldwork to gain experience in experimental plant ecology. We study the ecological and evolutionary consequences of climate change for plants. We focus on research on Drummond’s rockcress (Boechera stricta in the plant family Brassicaceae), a mustard plant native to the Rocky Mountains. We quantify plant fitness and traits to ask whether climate change could disrupt long-standing patterns of local adaptation, and to test whether phenotypic plasticity will enable populations to persist in the short-term. We will train the candidates in aspects of experimental design, data collection, and database management. During the second two weeks of the program (July 30-August 10, 2018), the successful candidates will participate in a high school field ecology course (http://www.rmbl.org/students/high-school-course/) that typically has 10-12 rising juniors and seniors. In the first week of the class, researchers from the field site lead programs in designing research questions and experiments and teach students research techniques for a variety of systems from terrestrial plant ecology to studies of aquatic invertebrates. In the second week, high school students carry out independent (or small group) projects, giving them experience in asking questions, devising hypotheses and predictions, conducting research, and analyzing their data. They present talks about their research on the final day of the class. Successful candidates will work daily with the high school students to help them develop their independent projects, will participate in all activities for the course, and will have the opportunity to lead their own activities. The budget includes a $1000 stipend for the three-week experience, as well room and board. We will reimburse travel expenses up to $500. There is an option for graduate students to continue to collaborate with us during the academic year to develop lesson plans based on the field activities. That collaboration would be no more than 10 hours/month, and would come with a $400 stipend on successful completion of lesson plans. The application consists of a cover letter detailing your qualifications and interest, a CV/ résumé and contact information for two references, all of which can be emailed to Dr. Anderson at: [email protected] Applications are due by April 16, 2018. Feel free to contact Jill if you have any questions about the program. If you would like to participate, but you are not available for the full 3-week duration, please apply. We may be able to accommodate your schedule. Additional information about our work can be found at: http://andersonlab.genetics.uga.edu/Home.html
