I regularly teach NR3100 (Applied Population Ecology – enrollment typically 50-60 students), and
NR4100 (Conservation Biology – enrollment typically 13-18). In alternate years, I teach NTRES4120-6120 (Wildlife Population Analysis).
Teaching Philosophy
The study of ‘natural resources’ is, arguably, the study of applications of fundamental principles in ecology, economics, and social science to particular problems, typically those involving resources of some importance to people. In an environment increasingly modified
by human influence, there is a growing need to make informed, scientifically defensible decisions concerning strategies adopted to achieve conservation or management objectives.
Current conservation and management approaches are built upon advances in the monitoring, assessment, and science of population and ecosystem biology, conditioned on the social, economic and legal context of human interactions with those environments. While
biological understanding is clearly a cornerstone of this endeavor, substantial uncertainty remains about the impacts of management decisions, and how to optimize those decisions in the presence of such uncertainties.
Applied resource conservation/management is at the heart of what we do, both now, and traditionally. Implicit in conservation/management is the concept of taking actions to achieve objectives. It is the process of formulating the objectives, understanding the uncertainties in the system we attempt to manage, and the technical and ‘human’ challenges of implementing a plan aimed to optimally meet those objectives, that is the unifying structure under which natural resource departments operate.
Motivated by this view, I have and continue to be very involved in technical training at student, faculty and staff levels. However, I also strive to make sure that students understand that techniques are simply tools, albeit often essential, and that science cannot progress without ideas. My general approach to teaching quantitative courses (my primary teaching focus at Cornell) is to emphasize both the theoretical and mathematical underpinnings of the approaches, as well as modern implementation of various analyses
through the computer. In all cases, the mechanics of “how an analysis works” are stressed before the students work with the computer. It is my goal to ensure that the students understand “what is happening”, rather than have them simply view the computer as a statistical “black box”, and master only the mechanics of getting the software to run.
However, computers are an essential component of data analysis and theoretical modeling, and students receive a considerable amount of practical exposure to computer-based analysis, once basic concepts have been mastered. Extensive analysis of problem data
sets, uniquely generated for each student, supplement reading and classroom instruction. I have had considerable experience in teaching quantitative ecology, biostatistics, applied demography and population genetics, and this approach has worked very well in the past, and continues to be successful here at Cornell. Students have responded well to my general approach to teaching - despite the strongly quantitative and conceptual nature of the material I cover in my classes, enrollment has been steadily increasing in each class.
Although I do not have a formal extension outreach appointment, I think it is incumbent upon all academics - especially those employed at a land-grant institution - to engage in outreach activities whenever possible. To this end, I have written 2 'online textbooks' (total >1100 pages) which are freely disseminated. One (the textbook on program MARK, co-authored with Gary White of Colorado State University) has been downloaded >15,000 times, making it one of the most widely used 'extension' publications produced at Cornell. In addition, I have created, manage and moderate a very large (~1000 member) online discussion forum on the use of data from marked individuals for purposes of resource conservation and management.
service to the profession
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Founder/Creator of www.phidot.org 2008
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