9 Future opportunities…

AEC 400, Applied Ecology

Now that the “living textbook” is in its “2nd edition”, I’m considering whether to continue to revise or scale down the contributing assignments to keep the textbook from growing infinitely longer. Jennifer Landin (Biological Sciences) suggested that, instead of asking students to create 3 different BioRender figures across the semester, I could have students complete 4 scaffolded assignments to reflect on different aspects of figure design for a single prompt. I’ve drafted those prompts below, which I hope will help students reflect on effective visualization and ultimately increase the quality of the final products.

1. What visual elements will you select to represent different concepts for your topic? How will readers of your figure (your audience) probably interpret these elements? Are there any cultural, physical, or psychological considerations to keep in mind?
2. What layout will you use to organize your figure? (For example, will your audience read the figure from left to right or top to bottom? Will you use a single image or multiple panels? Do you plan to visualize a process, comparison, or other representation?)
3. What text will you include in your figure? Specify labels for panels or important elements, any legend or scale for the figure; and make sure to reference / explain the in-figure text in the draft of your figure caption.
4. Final figure + caption submission

I also got a great suggestion from a student in fall 2024, to revise the collaborative writing prompt to focus on ways to apply ecology to address issues of environmental and social injustice. Including it as a new section in every chapter will ensure that environmental and social injustice are thoroughly embedded throughout the course and recognized as an important real-world ecology application.

AEC 245, Practicing Conservation Ecology

Textbook

Every year I struggle with the decision to require a textbook. On the one hand, textbooks are expensive! As of January 2025, Conservation Science cost $135 new, $17-100 on Amazon, and $70 to rent from MacMillan. However, I read this book cover to cover while I developed this class, and I survey students at the end of the semester; and every year the majority of students say that having this textbook is incredibly helpful. So, I keep 6 copies of the textbook in my office if anyone needs to borrow it; and I make sure students know that, in addition to keeping two reference copies on the shelf in their course reserves, NC State Libraries will scan any chapter you need as a PDF and email it to you, to provide further support in case anyone has trouble getting a copy.

I did do an extensive search for an OER replacement textbook that would qualify for the University Libraries’ Alt-Textbook grants to review and adopt an open textbook grant – but I couldn’t find a textbook of comparable scope and quality with an open copyright.

I have also considered revising my course to have students contribute toward an open access textbook, as I did for AEC 400; but I’m not confident that students enrolled in a 200-level course would create content of sufficient quality to compile a textbook without substantial rewriting. (Maybe someday things will settle down and I’ll have bandwidth for the careful restructuring that would be required…)

Vulnerable species pamphlets

For one of their take-home Mini-Projects, students create a trifold pamphlet about any species listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Redlist. I’ve gotten some really fantastic submissions over the years, and I’d love to figure out a way to share students’ pamphlets with the public… but how? (The trifold format is best suited for physical distribution.) I’ve reached out to the Museum of Natural Sciences… keep your fingers crossed!

AEC 437/537, Gut Microbial Ecology

Action items

For the first 9 weeks of the semester before spring break, I have students submit Action Items: 2-3 recommendations they might give to a friend or family member, that apply what we’ve learned about each topic to maximize benefits from the gut microbiome. Students post their action items on the class MURAL page, where we complete most assignments associated with those first 9 weeks. After we discuss Equity, Accessibility, and Science Communication in week 8, I ask students to

• Review their action items from previous weeks,
• Identify any barriers that might prevent folks from implementing any suggested Action Items. (Who is affected? Any themes?)
• Revise / brainstorm 3 action items that maximize accessibility (i.e., that “anyone” can do, despite those identified barriers).

The obvious next step is to share those “barrier-proof” Action Items to the public in some way… I just haven’t figured out how, yet. (One challenge with gut microbiomes, is that there are so many potential medical implications. I don’t want to risk any legal issues associated with offering what might be interpreted as “medical advice”.)