Dear Colleagues,
I would like to call your attention to four events directed at
scientists from undergraduate institutions that will take place at
the Ecological Society of America meetings in Milwaukee:
1. Monday, August 4, 2008: 11:30 AM-1:15 PM, Wright C, Hilton - ESA
Researchers at Undergraduate Institutions Section Business Meeting
and Mixer - Bring your lunch and enjoy some complimentary desserts
while you mingle with your colleagues who balance science with a
substantial teaching load. The mission of this new section is to
support faculty at smaller institutions as scientists and encourage
networking and collaboration within this group.
2. Monday, August 4, 2008: 8:00 PM-10:00 PM, 203 C, Midwest Airlines Center
SS 12 - Research Grants for Ecologists at Undergraduate Institutions:
A Conversation with Funding Agencies
This Special Session will be a conversation between ecologists at
undergraduate institutions and representatives of funding
agencies.The National Science Foundation (NSF) would like to increase
the number of successful grant applicants from smaller, more
teaching-oriented schools. Challenges to this proposition include a
lack of administrative and professional support for proposal
preparation at smaller institutions, lack of experience in proposal
writing among undergraduate faculty, and a mismatch between research
expectations at NSF and the time and resource realities of the
smaller academic environment. We hope to establish a productive
discussion about how these issues might be successfully addressed.
Specific topics will include particular funding opportunities,
suggestions for writing successful proposals, research challenges at
teaching-oriented institutions, and possible initiatives by both
colleges and funders to address the problems mentioned above. Our
goal is to not only provide information for scientists who want to
obtain research funds, but also to educate funding agencies about the
kinds of resources, support systems, and expectations that are
appropriate for the undergraduate environment. We invite scientists
at all career stages to come and share their success stories and
experiences on funding panels, ask questions, express concerns, and
gather information.
3. Tuesday, August 5, 2008: 8:00 PM-10:00 PM, 203 C, Midwest Airlines Center
SS 16 - How to Get and Keep a Job at a Small College
After two years of this session at past ESA meetings, we think we
have a good formula for 2008. It was very successful to implement
small "break-out" groups, in which nine to eleven audience members
could talk directly with a few faculty members after a short (~10
minute) panel discussion. Several graduate students felt that these
small-group interactions were among their most valuable experiences
during the 2007 Meeting in San Jose. We feel that this session is
particularly appropriate for the Milwaukee Meeting, because the theme
- "Enhancing Ecological Thought by Linking Education and Research" -
is exactly what faculty at small colleges accomplish during their careers
4. Friday, August 8, 2008: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM, 202 A, Midwest Airlines Center
OOS 23 - Mentoring Future Ecologists at Small Liberal Arts Colleges
Through Research
This organized oral session will present successful strategies for
enhancing undergraduate ecology teaching and learning, and for
engaging students in ecological research, while providing mechanisms
for developing long-term faculty research programs at small liberal
arts colleges. This collection of presentations will illustrate how
various ecological systems (watershed, antibiotic-resistant bacteria,
butterflies, bean beetles, forest soil nutrient cycles) are used to
engage students from diverse ethnic and educational backgrounds to
learn ecology, appreciate nature, and develop into effective
scientists, researchers, and published authors. The research systems
are of great public concern, in terms of water and air pollution
control, spread of diseases, and biodiversity conservation. The
faculty will show how they use these systems to develop research
programs that engage students over several years, building a database
that will help future ecology classes understand how ecology research
is done, while developing in these students the sense that they are
building a legacy for future students through their collective work.
The session will include ecologists from underrepresented groups, and
highlight the experience of our presenters in engaging students from
all ethnic backgrounds in learning ecology and conducting ecological
research. The diversity of perspectives, regional locations, and
research training of the presenters will illustrate the importance of
small liberal arts colleges in mentoring future ecologists. The
presentations on how undergraduate students can help create and use
long-term or large-scale ecological research databases that give a
well-defined picture of the research system, and on how to conduct
multi-year experiments and publish results with students, are
especially valuable to the development of ecology faculty at small
liberal arts colleges. These faculty must spend more time on teaching
duties than the time required for teaching and available for research
at larger institutions. The papers' discussion of innovative ways for
faculty at teaching-oriented institutions to obtain funding for
collaborative ecological research will also be valuable.
I hope you can join us at one or more of these events. See you in Milwaukee!
Laurie
Dr. Laurie Anderson (Laurel J. Anderson)
Associate Professor
Dept. of Botany/Microbiology
Ohio Wesleyan University
Delaware, OH 43015
740-368-3501
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
