Field Studies Curricula

The Field Studies Program offers six curriculum units in urban ecology:

• Urban Tree Stewardship
• Bird Bioacoustics
• Bird Biodiversity
• Ecological Resource Mapping
• Environmental Justice

Urban Tree Stewardship

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology is used by city planners to create potential layouts of neighborhoods and cities, and in this project strand that same technology is being used by students to analyze the trees in their own neighborhoods. Trees provide great value to cities as well as mitigate glaobal climate change, and here students identify local trees and gather data about them to be input into the ArcView GIS program CITYGreen. This curriculum unit enables students to consider the energy conservation, storm water control, and the reduced healthcare costs trees provide. Using this software and tablet PCs, students are able to determine the economic and environmental value of those trees and even model what their site will look like in 10, 20, or 100 years.

Bird Bioacoustics

How do birds communicate in crowded, noisy cities? Recent studies have found that some species of birds are able to raise the pitch of their song or increase song intensity in response to to urban noise. However, there is still little known about how most species deal with noise pollution in urban areas. In this curriculum unit, students explore the challenges of bird communication in urban neighborhoods by learning the basic physical and ecological concepts of bioacoustics. Students also learn to identify regional birds by their physical characteristics and song patterns. Students record and analyze bird songs using state of the art microphones and RAVEN, a bioacoustics analysis software package developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Bird Biodiversity

One way in which scientists assess the condition of a particular ecosystem is by measuring the number and types, or biodiversity,of birds present at a site. Birds are present in nearly every environment and are both highly audible and visible, making them an ideal study organism to introduce students to the world of field studies. Because birds are highly mobile, they can easily leave a habitat lacking sufficient resources, and are therefore a valuable indicator of ecosystem health. Students participating in the Bird Biodiversity Field Studies learn about the importance fo urban biodiversity and improve their research skills by quantifying biodiversity at a local field site. Through continuous monitoring of urban bird biodiversity, students are helping scientists to recognize potential problems in the local urban ecosystem.

Ecological Resource Mapping

Ecological Resource Mapping examines the health of the urban environment as aindicated by water puality, soil quality and tree health. Using Geographical Information System tools, such as Google Earth, students in this project strand study the environment by creating ecological resource maps of their specific sites which highlight important land use patterns and indicators of ecosystem health.

Environmental Justice

This unit is designed to complement the existing UEI field curriculum by making students more aware and knowledgeable about global and local environmental justice. This curriculum unit is composed of six different topics with corresponding case studies. The various topics can be used as stand-alone activities or as part of a larger cohesive unit on environmental justice. Each of these sections addresses a specific aspect of environmental justice by invesitgating the causes of the injustice and any relevant scientific concepts, as well as action taken by governments, communities, and individuals to improve the situation.

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