Hello, ESA community! I hope everyone is excited and ready for this year’s meeting. I am reaching out to inform you all of an opportunity to participate in a field course-related study.
My name is Maria De Jesus, and I am a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Biological Sciences at Auburn University. As an ESA member, I am excited to collaborate and help to support our ecological community in every way I can. For this reason, I am currently in search of participants for a graduate research study to improve field course participation and engagement in field science, with the goal of creating more inclusive field course practices to increase retention and engagement of students with marginalized identities conducting ecological research. See solicitation below I am seeking instructors who are willing to distribute a survey<https://auburn.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8988tjPqAief50G> to their students to improve field course instruction. Below, you will find the recruitment information that outlines our requests of instructors: I am primarily searching for instructors in ecology, conservation and courses broadly within the life sciences and conservation topics (e.g., conservation ecology, environmental science, geoscience, or marine biology, organism-specific topics, fisheries, forestry) who are willing to send out surveys to their students to gauge their comfort in the field as well as learn how to improve field courses for persons excluded due to ethnicity or race, disabled students, and gender-expansive and queer students. I am collecting data in Fall 2024 to Fall 2025. If you are interested in participating and we are able to survey your students, we will ask you to: 1. Send the following link and message to your students in an email or through your institution’s learning management system (e.g., Canvas, Blackboard): https://auburn.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8988tjPqAief50G “You are invited to participate in a research study to learn how to improve field courses for undergraduate students. The study is being conducted by Maria De Jesus, Ph.D. student, under the direction of Dr. Cissy Ballen, associate professor, in the Auburn University Department of Biological Sciences. You are invited to participate because you are a student in a participating course and are age 18 or older. What will be involved if you participate? Your participation is completely voluntary. If you decide to participate in this research study, you will be asked to answer a few questions on your experience with field courses and research. We will also ask for demographic information and a few measures of your connection to biology. Your total time commitment will be approximately 15 to 30 minutes.” 1. Respond to this email to confirm participation. Instructors are also asked to provide the following information: class enrollment, course description lecture style, and features. 1. Please complete the attached instructor consent form and return it to me, along with information on when you expect to disseminate the survey. The student consent form is the first question on the survey. 1. Providing students with extra credit is optional, however: 1. We ask that if you are able to, feel free to compensate your students with extra credit. Offering extra credit increases participation significantly. An easy way to do this is to communicate that if at least 70% of the class engages with the survey, all students receive extra credit. In this option, I will send regular updates with the percentage of students who have engaged with the survey from your class. 1. If you choose to only award extra credit to those who engage with the survey, we ask you provide an alternative extra credit assignment for students who wish NOT wish to participate in the survey. I am advised under (Dr. Cissy Ballen<http://mjb0...@auburn.edu/>), and my current external advisor, and primary collaborator (Dr. Lina Maria Arcila<http://linaarc...@gmail.com/>). IRB approval conducted under Auburn University in Auburn, AL. Auburn University IRB Protocol #24-961 EX 2407 Please also pass this along to any field course instructors or researchers you know of who would be interested in participating! Best, Maria De Jesus Auburn University Ph.D. Student B.A. in Biological Sciences Minor: Environmental Science Pronouns: They/Them To unsubscribe from this list please go to https://community.esa.org/confirm/?u=RhPWqPxFwODKvbkiT32nkIqRrsiSgulp
