D
e pa r t m e n t s
Ecology 101
Note: Dr. Harold Ornes is the editor of Ecology 101. Anyone wishing to contribute
articles or reviews to this section should contact him at the Office of the Dean, College of
Science, Southern Utah University, 351 W. Center, Cedar City, UT 84720; (435) 586–7921;
Fax: (435) 865–8550; e-mail: [email protected].
Personal or first-hand experiences are often the basis on which we create our best
teaching lectures, lessons, and stories. Authors Nancy Stamp, Douglas Robinson, and
Rebecca Urban from SUNY Binghamton, however, have provided valuable information and
techniques on teaching about large ecosystems, which will be helpful as you develop good
stories and pedagogy designed to educate, touch, and genuinely affect our students.
As an aging scientist who worked in the Everglades from 1971 to 1975 and subsequently
followed the growth in Florida’s human population and concomitant growth in understanding
of the ecology of the Everglades, I am anxious for our readers to consider this teaching unit
on the Everglades. Perhaps readers will be stimulated to visit the Everglades and other
large ecosystems and develop teaching units similar to that proposed herein by Stamp,
Robinson, and Urban.
In addition to the Literature and Internet sites mentioned in Professor Stamp’s article, I
offer an additional site that might be interesting to those who want to learn more about the
Everglades: ‹http://www.evergladesplan.org/index.aspx›
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The Everglades Power-of-Story-5E Teaching Unit
The Florida Everglades is a great example of geological and ecological processes giving rise to
a wetland and the complications that arise when humans alter the wetland and adjacent areas. Yet—
and despite all of the wonderful visual material (photographs and videos) and the extensive literature
(research reports and popular press) about the Everglades—it is a daunting task for instructors to put
together a unit that has the following elements: (1) addresses ecological misconceptions, (2) teaches
ecological concepts for the sophisticated level that we would like students to obtain, (3) provides a
framework such that students integrate newly acquired understanding into long-term memory, and (4)
gives students opportunities to apply and test newly acquired understanding.
Research shows that students learn best in situations that: call up what they know, challenge
misconceptions, and provide a structure or activity for incorporating new knowledge with the old
(reviewed in National Research Council 1999, Michael 2006). Based on prior knowledge and experience,
students develop their world views, but those views contain misconceptions, or inaccurate explanations
of phenomena (CUSE 1997). Misconceptions in ecology “strike at the heart of a general understanding
of ecology” and contribute to resistance in addressing environmental problems (Munson 1994). But
ascertaining ecological misconceptions is difficult (Stamp et al. 2006). Understanding and applying
ecological concepts requires understanding phenomena that reflect multiple levels (molecules to cells
to organisms to populations to communities to ecosystems) and scales (changes in the environment
temporally and spatially), and thus, recognizing that while we cannot always predict an outcome, we
can identify factors, their role and magnitude. Therefore, we want students to develop a sufficiently
sophisticated view that they can examine phenomena and appropriately incorporate the concept of
probability of outcomes. In other words, the goal is ecological literacy and fluency, such that students
ask and answer questions about ecology, in a scientifically valid way (a la Wright 2005). In addition to
the issue of misconceptions, students do not integrate textbook material into material provided in class
without being taught the metacognitive skills for that (D’Avanzo 2003), which means that class time has
to be spent on development of those skills (Wright 2005). Correspondingly, given that “net generation”
students are reading less (Oblinger and Oblinger 2005), the reading assignments must be sufficiently
engaging. Thus, meeting the four objectives above is a challenge for any unit.
The combination of “the power of story” and the “5E teaching cycle” holds great promise as a
structure to facilitate meeting those objectives. The power of story refers to the use of a narrative to
convey scientific information in such a way as to engage the interest of students (Wilson 2002, Stamp
and Armstrong 2005). The 5E teaching cycle refers to five phases (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate,
and Evaluate) that are especially effective at addressing misconceptions in a class period or a unit, and
that are presented in cycles due to the continual need to build and reinforce concepts across lessons and
units (Bybee et al. 2006). This method is based on research that shows that students have misconceptions
about how the world works; developing competence requires acquiring a foundation, understanding facts
within a conceptual framework (which often includes recognizing or challenging the misconceptions),
and organizing facts and ideas for retrieval and application (National Research Council 1999).
We were especially interested in development of a generic approach to help new instructors learn
how to use the power of story combined with the 5E teaching cycle and then have the tools (and
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confidence) to develop their own units. One of the most crucial issues in higher education is helping
faculty become familiar with and implementing new approaches to teaching, especially with good
success at the outset (Michael 2006). Therefore, this unit on the Everglades is also an application of
a generic approach, which combines a structure (the power of story integrated into the 5E teaching
cycle) with some standard teaching methodology (concept mapping, pair-and-share and Just-In-Time
Teaching (JITT), which consists of pre-class electronic communication and use of the Internet to set up
interactive classroom exercises). For readers unfamiliar with the other teaching methods mentioned, we
recommend the following: for concept mapping, Briscoe and LaMaster (1991); pair-and-share, Angelo
and Cross (1993); and JITT, Marrs and Novak (2004).
Development of the unit
We began with the objective of building a power-of-story-5E unit on the topic of wetlands. The
first step was identifying the ecosystem for the case study. We chose the Everglades because there is an
abundance of literature and visual aids, and it is a prime example of restoration issues, which then allows
application of ecological concepts. And frankly, we knew the students would not know much about the
real Everglades, but would be intrigued once they heard the substories.
Next, we found a primary reading assignment; we wanted either a research report or review that
provided the big picture, yet was challenging in terms of detail, and was readable yet scientific in terms
of content. We built the unit around an article that described the Everglades restoration issues (Sklar
et al. 2005). A plus was an instructional piece about the JITT method applied to this restoration article
(Hodder et al. 2005). These articles then provided the basis for the Elaborate phase of the 5E unit, where
students apply their newly formulated understanding.
But a foundation about the ecosystem had to be laid before the students could fully comprehend any
primary literature (research report or review). The foundation was laid in three ways: (1) there were prior
lectures on eutrophication and the nitrogen cycle, (2) the first reading assignment for the Everglades was
a power-of-story narrative that was based on research reports and reviews (e.g., Stamp 2007), and (3)
a series of mini-lectures was dispersed throughout the 5E unit, with photographs and video-clips that
emphasized key points from the readings and expanded on them.
The design of the unit includes the power of story approach throughout the unit, beginning with the
first reading assignment, then continuing with the series of mini-lectures, the restoration article, and the
students creating their own narratives through discussion and writing. Research shows that students learn
better when they are exchanging information and ideas and cooperatively problem-solving (Michael
2006). That the students become storytellers is a key part of the process. And as Wilson (2002) says:
storytelling is something we humans have to do “if we want to remember anything at all.”
The next step was building into the unit an assessment of prior knowledge and misconceptions. We
began by identifying 24 terms in the Sklar et al. (2005) article that we thought students might not know
(or understand well enough), and for each term simply asked students at the outset and again at the end
of the unit to choose among these: (1) never heard the term before, (2) heard the term before but don’t
know its meaning, (3) have a vague understanding of its meaning, (4) can give an adequate explanation
of the term, and (5) can give a thorough explanation of the term. Besides giving us information about
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what they thought they knew, this exercise was important in terms of the students’ evaluating their own
knowledge and eventually their learning.
We also identified several phrases in the Sklar et al. (2005) article that we thought might confuse
students: “the region’s rich organic soils” (p. 162) vs. “historically nutrient-poor” (p. 162), “goals of
Everglades restoration are to…reduce nutrient enrichment” (p. 162), why “encroachment of native
cattail” is bad (p. 162), why plants “contribute to decreased dissolved oxygen concentrations” in water
(p. 162), and the issue of geographic shifts in nesting patterns of wading birds. These items were slated
for class discussion.
As a starting place for assessment of misconceptions about wetlands, we asked four open-ended
questions and asked for a 25-word response to each prior to the first reading and class period. The
students were asked to answer on their own, without drawing upon other sources for answers: What is a
wetland? Can a wetland be restored? What governs a wetland? What is the Everglades? We categorized
the students’ answers as, exhibits: “little or no understanding,” “some understanding,” and “adequate
response.” We also asked for a concept map of a wetland.
For the pre-self-assessments (terminology, open-ended questions, and concept map) and some of
the post-self-assessments (terminology and personal reflection), we provided a small number of points
for participation. For the other post-assessments (re-writing answers to the open-ended questions and
re-doing the concept map), the assignments were graded.
The Everglades power-of-story-5E unit
Altogether the Everglades power-of-story-5E structure is as follows, with parts of the 5E phases
occurring outside of class and usually more than one 5E phase in a lecture or discussion period.
Engage part 1: Pre-assessment
This phase begins with an outside-of-class pre-self-assessment, which assists in engaging students
(that is, the questions are “what do you know about…?”). Students complete the assessment electronically
(e.g., via Blackboard course management system), which allows the instructor to preview student
understanding (and misunderstanding) before the first class period.
Engage part 2: What is the Everglades?
Points to develop in mini-lecture. The Everglades covered about a third of Florida (Everglades
National Park is a small portion at the southern tip of Florida). Before human intervention, the Everglades
was a 80-km (50-mile) wide river with an average depth of 15 cm. A variety of plant communities occur,
including sawgrass marsh, open-water sloughs, wet prairies, pinelands, hardwood islands, cypress islands,
willow heads, and three kinds of mangrove zones. The plants and animals are a blend of tropical species
from the Caribbean islands and temperate species of North America. The Everglades is characterized
as nutrient poor, yet historically, and even now, the biodiversity is high and so is productivity. The
following questions are posed: What explains such an ecosystem? How did it arise?
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Process. If the available time in the next lecture period time is ≤60 minutes, begin by showing
selected video-clips to introduce geology, climate, variety of habitats of the Everglades, and, of course,
alligator biology (e.g., from Rich Kern Nature Series). This is followed by a mini-lecture to expand
on this introduction of the Everglades (focusing on the above topics) and supported by photographs.
Embedded in the mini-lecture are the concepts of hydroperiod, nutrient availability, niche, food web,
trophic levels, predator–prey interactions, ecosystem modifier, habitat, and community. Time = 20–25
minutes.
Then conduct a discussion beginning with a pair–share exercise, where students list the important
ecological concepts that apply so far in the story about the Everglades, with a focus on the questions
posed at the outset. For class discussion, ask for some examples and explanation. Don’t correct mistakes
yet; wait until the Explain phase. If there is some disagreement, say “Let’s see what you think as we
continue with the story of the Everglades.” Time = 10 minutes.
After the lecture period, the engagement continues with a power-of-story narrative (e.g., Stamp
2007) as the first reading assignment. The narrative (with a length equivalent to a chapter in a textbook)
covers the geology, climate, plant communities, hurricanes, human effects, fish community, alligator
biology, wading bird populations, introduced species, and restoration of the Everglades. The students
read the assigned portion of the narrative and then submit answers electronically to the questions at the
end of narrative sections, with the requirement that they use their own words or paraphrase. An option is
to have students submit a double entry: (1) their answer, and (2) their thoughts or reaction to what they
read (Angelo and Cross 1993). If the available time in the first lecture period is >60 minutes, part of the
narrative can be assigned before the first lecture period, and the first lecture period includes the next 5E
phase.
Explore part 1: wading birds
Points to develop in mini-lecture. Before humans intervened, the nutrient-poor Everglades sustained
huge populations of 14 species of wading birds, and even now, still sustains large numbers of these
birds. How was and is that possible? Through hunting and diversion of water flow, humans have had an
enormous impact on these birds. Given that the birds could migrate elsewhere, why are they so vulnerable
to human impact? Wading bird numbers are a good indicator of health of the wetlands because these
birds are conspicuous, intimately associated with the hydrologic conditions, predators (and so their
numbers indicate prey supply), and wide-ranging (and so indicate conditions across the landscape).
What then do the bird population patterns tell us about the state of the ecosystem?
Process. This phase begins with another mini-lecture with visual aids, which focuses on population
patterns of wading birds of the Everglades. Embedded in this are the concepts of hydroperiod, drydown, food web, trophic levels, predator–prey interactions, source and sink populations, migration to
follow food, human effects, and conservation. Then there is a discussion of the above questions plus the
responses by the class to pre-self-assessment questions, beginning with: How does what you have learned
so far compare with what you thought two days ago when you answered questions about wetlands and
the Everglades? What do you think now? Ask for a few volunteers to respond. Time = 20 minutes.
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Explore part 2: pulsed breeding and cycles of drought
An optional exercise further develops the understanding that animal reproduction in most wetlands
is entrained to natural cycles of drought and flooding. The reading assignment (Frederick and Ogden
2001) not only addresses these concepts, but also provides a good example of the scientific method and
doing research through analysis of available data sets. Outside of class, students read the article and then
submit answers electronically to these questions, with the requirement that they use their own words
or paraphrase. What was the hypothesis of this research paper? What was the evidence used to create
the hypothesis? What were the methods used to test the hypothesis? What were the major findings? Did
the results support the hypothesis? List the three most interesting things that you learned about wading
birds, the Everglades and/or wetlands. In class, have some discussion of their answers and the scientific
method. Then pose this question: In the article (Frederick and Ogden 2001:488), the authors say, “We
have not demonstrated a causal relationship between the antecedent droughts and supra-normal nestings
in the Everglades, but the association seems strong enough to warrant an explanation.” What do they
mean by, “We have not demonstrated a causal relationship”? What are the two explanations that they
give for the pattern? The explanations (on pages 488–489) expand on the concepts of nutrient cycling
and predator–prey interactions. Lastly, ask: Do these patterns of pulsed productivity apply to other
wetlands?
Explain: application of ecological concepts to wetlands
This phase begins with a pair–share discussion of ecological concepts that apply to the Everglades,
with a focus on the major questions posed at the outset of the unit and during the Engage and Explore
phases. For the class discussion, ask a few pairs to volunteer examples to the class. Have them define a
concept and explain how it relates to another key concept for the Everglades. Time = 15 minutes.
If the topic of wetlands has not been addressed prior to this unit and will not be addressed after
it, then to help students generalize concepts beyond the Everglades, provide a mini-lecture on “what
is a wetland” that shows other examples, such as coastal Texas, the potholes in the Great Plains, the
Camargue on the southern coast of France, and thus extends the concepts of hydroperiod, food web, and
so forth. Time = 15 minutes.
Elaborate part 1: challenge of wetland restoration
Points to develop in mini-lecture. Through channelization of the Kissimmee River, which flows
into Lake Okeechobee, and a complex array of canals carrying water from the lake to coastal cities, so
much water was diverted away from the Everglades that it became entirely dependent on rainfall, which
only provided half of the pre-canal amount. Besides altering the hydroperiod in ways that disrupted
reproductive biology of plants and animals, the Everglades, in particular hardwood islands, became
more susceptible to fire. Florida has a high level of lightning storms, so fires occur naturally during the
dry-downs. In addition to these problems, agriculture around the lake introduced high nutrient levels that
disrupted the previous plant communities. The federal government has embarked on a massive restoration
project. About 50% of the historical Everglades is lost for good. Can the remainder be restored? And at
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what cost? What exactly does it mean to restore an ecosystem? What does restoration for the Everglades
entail?
Process. This phase starts outside of class with reading assignments (finishing the power-of-story
narrative, if not already completed, and reading the Sklar et al. [2005] article). Electronically, students
submit answers to the questions in panel no. 1 in Hodder et al. (2005). This set of warm-up questions
asks students to compare the 1880s Everglades to the present day, and indicate what is “wrong” with the
water-flow management now.
The class period begins with a mini-lecture about channelization of the Kissimmee River, status of
Lake Okeechobee, the development of the canal system, and other human effects. Time = 15 minutes.
Pair–share discussion is done on the questions in panel no. 2 of Hodder et al. (2005), by showing the
questions on overhead transparency or PowerPoint projection and having pairs apply the rubric provided
in panel no. 1 of Hodder et al. (2005). This second set of questions focuses on students understanding
how canals and water control have affected key elements of the Everglades, such as the water table, soil,
and marsh distribution. The application of the rubric works best if students have had experience applying
rubrics; if they lack experience, then more time will be needed to teach them how to use rubrics. Class
discussion of questions is started with some pairs volunteering their ideas. Time = 30 minutes.
Elaborate part 2: developing a bigger picture of ecosystem function and complexity
After addressing the questions, pairs re-work their concept maps from the pre-self-assessment. Class
discussion consists of what concepts could or should be included in maps, and should largely be driven
by student discussion. It should be stressed that there is no one “right” concept map; rather, the emphasis
should be on maps having a hierarchy of general to specific, appropriate branching of detail, logical
links, and key concepts. If the students haven’t had instruction on how to develop a concept map, then
lead a class discussion to guide the students through the construction of a concept map for a sub-theme,
such as how the water table affects the alligator population. It is also important to show students how
scientists use concept maps or factor analysis in their research. An example relative to the Everglades
is a concept map of the prey availability hypothesis for wading birds (Gawlik 2002: Fig. 7). Time = 25
minutes.
Once students have their concept map, they should be able to take any part of it and ask how control
of water (channelization, canal system, and reservoir system) affects that part of the map, and then trace
backwards through the map to see ramifications. If there is enough time, have pairs develop such a submap; pairs could work on panel no. 3 in Hodder et al. (2005), which has students develop a concept map
of how, for example, the canal effect on the water table impacts tree islands. Time = 10 minutes.
The last part of the class discussion addresses “What do you understand about the Everglades now,
that you didn’t understand when you came to class today? List at least two items.” and “What don’t you
understand? List at least two items.” Time = 10 minutes.
Evaluate part 1: immediate post–assessment
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This phase begins outside of class with students refining their concept map of the Everglades and
rewriting their answers to two of the questions posed at the outset of the unit (What is a wetland? [or
What governs a wetland?], and Can a wetland be restored?), with a length of 250–300 words for each
answer. These are submitted electronically, along with re-doing the terminology assessment.
Evaluate part 2: student reflection
In class, students write a draft of their personal take-home message (e.g., What were the most
important or interesting things that you learned? Explain). Expect them to write for 5 minutes, and then
discuss it with a partner. Class discussion begins with some students volunteering some of their takehome message. Time = 15 minutes.
After class, students refine their take-home messages and submit those electronically. The takehome messages are not graded, but they are required. Having students write their personal take-home
messages allows students to reflect on what they have learned, integrate the new knowledge into their
current data base, and personalize their learning through their re-telling the story of the Everglades as it
affected them.
Evaluate part 3: final assessment
A subsequent exam has questions about the Everglades and ecological concepts developed in the unit.
And the course evaluation provides another opportunity for feedback from students about the unit.
Testing the unit
We tested the unit in a lecture-only, sophomore-level ecology course of 57 students.
In the pre-self-assessment of the 24 terms, the only terms with an average response of “can give
explanation” (rank 4 or more) were eutrophication and watershed (concepts developed in lectures just
prior to this unit); only the terms desiccation and water table averaged as “vague understanding” (rank
3 range); the other 20 terms averaged as “don’t know” (less than rank 3). In the post-self-assessment,
9 terms averaged as “can give explanation” (> rank 4), and 11, “vague understanding” (rank 3 range)
(Fig. 1). Interestingly, even though at the outset, on average, many students thought they knew what
eutrophication was, 40% listed it as a concept they understood better after the Everglades unit. Typical
comments were: “…I really got the hang of eutrophication and its causes and effects, including new
knowledge on point sources and non-point sources, as well as ways to limit eutrophication, and why it is
so detrimental to the environment.” Students’ view of the self-assessment on terms was also interesting:
“I now understand most of the ecological concepts covered. It was very reassuring to go back to the
questions from the first day and being able to put a 5 [“can give thorough explanation of term”] next to
most topics on the list of things I understand. I went from knowing very few to knowing almost every
word on the list.”
At the outset of the course, we had half the class answer the first two open-ended questions, and the
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rest of the class, the other two questions (Table 1). Specific misconceptions included students thinking
that wetlands only occur in warm climates, all wetlands are nutrient rich, wetlands cannot occur without
high precipitation, and all wetlands have low oxygen levels. Regarding the Everglades, many did not
know what the Everglades was, or thought it was simply a swampy place with alligators.
By the end of the unit, all of the students wrote better-informed, more complex, and sophisticated
answers to these questions. Of course, both we and the students expected that, given the work done in
the unit.
We also evaluated their understanding and learning via concept maps using the rubric in Hodder et
al. (2005), with one point for each of the four criteria. At the outset of the unit, the scores for concept
maps representing a wetland averaged 1.4 + 0.1 (mean + SE); by the end of the unit, scores were 2.0
+ 0.2, and 2.7 + 0.2 if we gave them credit for the concept map specifically describing the Everglades,
which would of course show more about what they learned. At the outset of the unit, the concept maps
illustrating what governs a wetland averaged 1.4 + 0.1; by the end of the unit, 1.6 + 0.2, and 2.3 +
0.2 if we gave credit for Everglades specificity. In each pre- and post- (using Everglades specificity)
comparison, the results were statistically significant (“representing” map: t = 5.33, n = 17, P < 0.001;
“governing” map: t = 7.25, n = 14, P < 0.001). Overall, the initial maps were very simple and vague,
and the final maps, organized hierarchically from general to specific, were much more complex and had
better logic. We also noticed that students liked working on concept maps together, and that seemed to
help them build their concept-mapping skills. As one student said, “The concept map especially helped
me because I could concisely tie all the main points of the unit together and see how they related to
one another. Drawing a concept map is a technique that I will definitely use in studying for my other
classes.”
Just as significant to us as the students’ learning exhibited in their essays and concepts maps was
what the students wrote in their personal take-home messages about the Everglades. Typical responses
were about 150 words; many ecological concepts were mentioned in the students’ reflections on their
learning and their integration of that into their world-view. A few quotes illustrate this: “It is interesting
seeing how the concepts and theories we learned previously applied to this ecosystem. One of the most
important concepts I learned from this unit is how all the species in the ecosystem are closely related.”
“The sheer complexity of ecosystems when looked at closely is overwhelming, and it is clear that this
is just the beginning of what goes on in the wetlands.” “The Everglades are a complex system…even
the littlest changes in the environment can alter the ecosystem in huge way.” “I did not know just how
sensitive the Everglades was to water levels, and what complications that causes for restoration.” “The
damage we have done and continue to do to the Everglades is irreversible and though restoration efforts
are being made, we may never restore the Everglades to anything near what they used to be. This is
important because we as humans have to realize that we can completely alter ecosystems and destroy
them without thinking…” “… the thing I take home from this unit is how truly important the work of
ecology is to the world that we are quickly destroying. I suppose I knew that on some level; but it is a
point that was hammered home to me over and over again throughout this unit.”
Furthermore, many students commented that they liked studying an ecosystem historically and
from the bottom up. They said it was more interesting and made it easier to understand and visualize
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the abiotic processes and biotic relationships. For instance: “What I liked about this unit was that we
concentrated on one specific ecosystem. Learning how it formed geologically, what species and habitats
characterize it and how they interact with each other, how the ecosystem functions as a whole, and also
what outside factors are influencing it…Each topic we discussed was directly related to the next and it
just seemed easier to connect the different concepts we were learning because they were all presented
within one system.”
Reflections of the instructors
This was an opportunity to evaluate the comfort level of new instructors to a power-of-story-5E
teaching cycle unit developed for college students. The primary instructor for this unit (Urban) had
been a teaching assistant for an ecology course and was familiar with the 5E teaching method applied
to elementary school science, and the other instructor (Robinson) had been a teaching assistant for an
ecology course but was using the 5E method for the first time. Neither had tried the power-of-story
approach.
Both said they would use the Everglades unit again, and now were more likely to develop their
own power-of-story 5E teaching units. They felt that the unit provided a succinct story that included a
large number of ecological concepts usually addressed separately and, especially as a follow-up to the
eutrophication and nitrogen cycle lectures, helped the students understand and retain material through
applying the information and ideas. They also said that implementing the unit was easier than developing
their own material, which in contrast took 2–4 days per lecture period. Furthermore, they felt that the
unit was a good guide for new instructors and provided the context needed for trying different teaching
techniques.
The third author (Stamp), who has taught ecology courses over the last 20 years, was struck by
the students’ responses to the question, “How could this unit be improved?” Even though two lecture
periods (each 85 minutes) and two discussion periods (50 minutes) were devoted to this unit, many
students said that they wanted to know more about (and so spend more time on) the Everglades and
then gave examples, the variety of which suggested that more time could have been spent on most
topics. Even though there were 10 minutes of video material plus a lot of photographs on PowerPoint
presentations, many students also wanted more visuals, especially video clips, to get a better feel for
what the Everglades is (and was) like; they made it clear that they wanted to experience it, or better
yet, be there! They also wanted more units like this. As one student said, “I think this unit is really
interesting…I wish we covered all the units like this because after doing a lot of group work, drawing
concept maps, etc., I feel like I retained a lot of the information.”
Conclusions
Units using an ecosystem to build sophisticated understanding of ecological concepts, and
drawing upon power-of-story for engagement throughout the unit and the 5E teaching cycle to address
misconceptions and gaps in foundational knowledge can result in significant learning outcomes for
the students and, at the same time, build pedagogical skills of instructors that address needs of “net
generation” students. Specifically, the Everglades unit can be used early in a course to begin groundwork
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for a more sophisticated understanding of food webs, energy transfer, nutrient balance, population
patterns, climate, and evolution of ecosystems, or later in the course, as reinforcement, or to introduce
concepts of keystone species, ecosystem modifier, predator–prey interactions, effects of introduced
species, and restoration issues. And it will work for large-enrollment courses. For an example of a twocycle power-of-story-5E ecosystem unit that is built on numerous research reports (rather than on one
written narrative and one review article), see Stamp and Armstrong (2005).
Acknowledgments
We appreciate feedback from the students of the Fall 2006 Ecology course at Binghamton; Theresa
Wilson for her input and help in managing student responses to online and classroom exercises; and
Wei-Xing Zhu for comments on the manuscript.
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Internet links:
Everglades National Park
‹http://www.everglades.national-park.com/›
‹http://www.nps.gov/ever/index.htm›
Nancy Stamp, Douglas A. Robinson, Jr., and Rebecca A. Urban
Department of Biological Sciences
Binghamton University–State University of New York
Binghamton, NY 13902-6000 USA
Correspondence: Nancy Stamp
(607) 777-2070
E-mail: [email protected]
Table 1. Categorization by instructors of students’ pre-self-assessment answers to the open-ended
questions. Results are percentages. Number of samples = n.
Question
Little or no
understanding
What is a wetland?
40
Can a wetland be
restored?
48
What governs a
wetland?
What is the
Everglades?
Some understanding
but vague and/or
mistakes
48
Adequate response
given word-limit
n
12
25
40
12
25
52
38
10
21
41
41
18
22
72 Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America
5
Rank
4
Preassessment
Post-assessment
3
2
1
De Me
so
ep
Cu cos
rta m
in
W
al
l
Fl
um
Ca
e
lib
ra
te
d
No
Ex
nta
lin
nt
Sh
ea
ee
Ri r fe
tfl
ed
dg
ow
b
e
Sl
an ack
o
d
u
m
S
ec gh
Ni lou
ha
tro gh
ni
sm
ge
la
n
At
m n M dsc
os
in
a
pe
e
p
De her raliz
ic
a
tri
De tio
tu
n
s
ba pos
se
itio
d
Sy n
De ste
M
at
ss m
s
i
of
Nu cat
io
C
tri
al
en n
ca
tl
re
oa
ou
D
d
s
Ph ry d
ow
yt
op
la n
nk
to
n
Aq
Tr
u
ee ife
Is r
Hy lan
d
dr
op s
er
W
Sa
io
d
ltw ate
rs
at
he
er
d
in
tru
s
W
at ion
er
Al
t
lig abl
e
a
Eu tor
ho
tro
le
ph
ica
tio
n
0
Fig. 1. Student pre- and post-self-assessment of terminology from Sklar et al. (2005). 1 = never
heard the term before; 2 = heard the term before but don’t know its meaning; 3 = have a vague
understanding of the meaning; 4 = can give an adequate explanation of the term; and 5 = can give a
thorough explanation of the term. N = 45.
The ESA Family of Scientific
Journals.
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