A few miles up Slough Creek in Yellowstone National Park, I found myself watching a sow and two grizzly bear cubs saunter through the marsh. Their presence was quiet and graceful, while I, three other instructors, and 15 students from Rhodes were transfixed. Here we were, in one of the wildest places in the Lower 48, sitting in a lush green valley looking up at the Beartooth Mountains, watching these incredible animals make their way from the river to the forest with little care about us.
On any given day this would have been an incredible sight, yet on this day it became profound. Moments before the sighting of the grizzly bears the students were taking notes and finishing a lesson on trophic cascades and apex predators. They had been learning how interconnected the landscape was—from the high mountain peaks, to the trout in the streams, to the mega fauna such as the grizzly bears. It was all too seamless to now have the sow and cubs walk through our classroom at such a critical point.
As one of the educators for this 2014 Maymester Rocky Mountain Ecology course, I found this moment to be just one example of using the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to teach ecology and science. The Rhodes Maymester program looks to highlight experiential education and provide authentic learning experiences beyond the classroom. For the Rocky Mountain Ecology course, field-based education is its heart and soul. While we could have never guaranteed seeing a sow and two cubs, we knew the area and its reputation for sightings. Same with teaching fire ecology among a burn scar or watching wolves run in the hills while hearing stories of the re-introduction. Learning through experience can have profound impacts.
Students spend their first Maymester week studying in Grand Teton National Park, while staying at Teton Science Schools (TSS), where they begin being immersed in the study of science and ecology, learning key terms and understanding the basics of ecosystem functions. In the second week they head north to Yellowstone National Park where they camp, hike, and take part in learning about Yellowstone’s natural and cultural histories. The final week of the Maymester is a capstone research project. In small groups, students pick, design, and implement their own research in the surrounding area. Students go through the process of collecting data, synthesizing it, and ultimately presenting it to the local community at TSS.
In 2014, the program was entering its fifth year. At that point the collaborators of the program—Rhodes faculty, long-standing educators, and TSS—all recognized that something special was occurring during the Rocky Mountain Ecology course. That following fall I went on to research the program itself. The research became my master’s degree thesis at the University of Wyoming. We felt that the Rocky Mountain course was impactful and genuine in creating authentic learning opportunities, but wanted to know if it was effective. Were the students truly learning the subject matter, and to what extent? Was field-based education making a difference? Were the students able to transfer knowledge from one ecosystem to another? Because my research was objective, names were not recorded; but the students’ collective comments supported what we had suspected. Students were leaving the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem more scientifically and ecologically literate. But, more importantly, they were using systems thinking, articulating ways to create change, recognizing what their roles in the environment looked like, and, last but not least, transferring this knowledge and understanding back to their chosen degrees.
One student explains how being immersed in this type of learning is so impactful: “I'd known what ecology meant on paper. But getting to come out and look at the different tree communities and realize that there are 100 different reasons why they are there, brought it home more than any textbook could have for me.”
As the course progressed through the three weeks, students’ varying life experiences and majors provided for dynamic discussions and learning opportunities. The subject of ecology became blended with law, political science, and education, while personal experiences of hunting, running, and farming became different lenses to examine scientific concepts. Students were transferring their knowledge of western ecosystems back to southern ecology, while also thinking how science and ecology could influence their given career choices.
One student explained how he saw this course influencing him in the future by saying, “I am going to go with my career—law, maybe environmental law, I think that would be awesome. But I don't think it matters where I'm going because I am going to be passionate about incorporating what we've learned here and the elements of what we've learned here into my way of thinking wherever I go.”
Beyond its ability to bring life to a subject matter, the course was also able to reach something greater in the students that can’t be defined so easily. As another student explains, “It has been a very enlightening experience. And I feel like places like this do remind you that there are forces out there, and they may be Godly or maybe not, but they’re bigger than just plain systems and just patterns, and there is something that makes everything out here function. It’s not something you can necessarily define, and when you look out at those mountains like I do every day, you feel something in yourself that can’t be explained by just anything.”
The value and importance of these students becoming more scientifically and ecologically literate cannot be overstated. As the issues that face our world become increasingly more complex, such as food and water scarcity or the implications of climate change, it will likely be these undergraduate students who are able to think critically and transfer knowledge from one subject area to another who will come up with solutions to address these problems.
When I think back to that day up Slough Creek, I’m still in awe. I remember so distinctly my co-instructor pointing out the bears, the gut disbelief I had, and then the wave of realization of why I do what I do. To educate is one thing, to let the place speak for itself is another. I so cherish the opportunity to be a part of a program where students are able to experience a subject for themselves and draw their own conclusions to complex issues.
The Rocky Mountain Ecology course is just one example of a Rhodes Maymester program and its effectiveness. Rocky Mountain Ecology’s unique partnership between Rhodes and TSS highlights the value of place-based and field-based education. The program will be entering its seventh year this summer.
— By Kim Thompson