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14-18 year old students who are self-motivated and interested in college-level field biology research
Work one-on-one with an experienced ecologist to design, conduct, analyze, and communicate an independent field biology research project
Live, online, 40-minute meetings (typically scheduled every other week)
Homework assigned each meeting (typically 2-3 hours)
Personalized instructor feedback and support between meetings
Course grade (optional) and final student report
$64/40-minute live, online meeting
Price includes instructor feedback and support between meetings.
Usually students schedule 6 meetings (meeting every other week through the semester); however, this varies depending on project complexity and student goals
Inquire about availability for this class by emailing heather@fieldbiologyclass.com.
Note: Required pre-requisite: Ornithologist in Training: Avian Research and Scientific Writing
During this class, students will work one-on-one with an experienced field ecologist to design, conduct, and communicate a unique field biology research project. Students might investigate patterns in bird species richness, insect foraging behavior, plant cover, and more. The list of possibilities is only limited by your curiosity and interests.
Students may choose focus on communicating their results through a professional poster, oral presentation, and/or scientific paper. After the initial meeting and discussion about research interests and goals, the instructor will design a unique syllabus for each student, including the proposed class meeting sequence and schedule. Any syllabus or schedule modifications will be approved by both the instructor and the student/parent before implementation.
During each meeting, the instructor will collaborate with the student on the planned meeting content and then will identify homework assignments to be completed before the next meeting. A meeting summary with clearly communicated homework expectations and due dates will be provided to both the student and parent after each meeting. In addition to the 40-minute meeting, the class price also includes individual written feedback on homework assignments before the next meeting, as well as question support.
Meeting sequence example.
Actual topics and schedules vary with each student project
Meeting 1: Design Your Research Project:
During this meeting students will:
Identify research interests
Decide on a research question
Form a hypothesis and identify independent and dependent variables
Begin writing a procedure to test the hypothesis
Homework: Write methods section and begin background literature research for project
Meeting 2: Firm up Research Project Methods:
During this meeting students will:
Finish research project design (including locating study sites, as needed)
Finish research project protocol
Discuss background literature and biological context and biological rationale
Design a data sheet to use to gather data
Homework: Write the introduction section and being gathering data
Meeting 3: Data Collection Check-in
During this meeting students will:
Discuss data collection progress
Troubleshoot any data collection challenges
Begin organizing data for analysis
Discuss data analysis methods
Homework: Finish collecting data and begin data analysis
Meeting 4: Understand and Display Your Data
During this meeting students will:
Organize data for analysis
Analyze their data
Display data in graphs and tables with appropriate axis labels, titles, and/or captions.
Homework: Finish analysis and write the results section
Meeting 5: Interpret Your Data
During this meeting students will:
Interpret the data to determine if it does or does not support the hypothesis
Draw conclusions about the data and how it fits into what is already known in scientific literature
Brainstorm future research ideas
Brainstorm the broader implications of the study
Discuss title options
Homework: Write the discussion section and revise and submit the entire scientific paper
Meeting 6: Scientific Paper Feedback
During this meeting students will:
Discuss the written feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of the scientific paper.
Identify concrete ways to improve the scientific paper
Discuss Research next steps
Homework: Submit final scientific paper for final round of feedback
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