This award provides funds to the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia to establish a research program for undergraduates where basic principles of ecology will be taught, and the methods by which scientists increase our understanding of the natural will be detailed. Two major objectives will be to: 1) teach students that science is a process of acquiring evidence and making inference, and not a collection of immutable facts; and 2) increase the ecological and environmental literacy of scientists, professionals, and policy makers. The program will include a diversity of students in terms of their interests, backgrounds, and career goals--participants will be recruited from the hundreds of colleges/universities in the mid- Atlantic area. The focus of the program is on testing hypotheses related to plant-animal interactions, a topic of considerable basic and applied interest, and one that has considerable heuristic value. Students will conduct research in a field-station setting at the Blandy Experimental Farm, a biological field station of the University of Virginia, and will be immersed in a community of 15 to 20 graduate/post-doctoral researchers. Field trips will focus on issues related to conservation; a weekly seminar series at the Farm will also add to the research experience. Faculty wages, and fees for laboratory space and dorm rooms will be contributed as cost share items.
