Assessing opportunities and inequities in undergraduate ecological forecasting education

• Published in: Ecology and evolution 2023-05, Vol.13 (5), p.e10001-n/a
• Main Authors: Willson, Alyssa M., Gallo, Hayden, Peters, Jody A., Abeyta, Antoinette, Bueno Watts, Nievita, Carey, Cayelan C., Moore, Tadhg N., Smies, Georgia, Thomas, R. Quinn, Woelmer, Whitney M., McLachlan, Jason S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 21st century; Academic Practice in Ecology and Evolution; Accessibility; College students; Colleges & universities; Core curriculum; Curricula; curriculum; Data science; ecological forecasting; Ecological research; Ecology; Ecosystem biology; Education; End users; Environmental impact; Environmental science; Forecasting; Higher education institutions; inclusion; Interdisciplinary aspects; Internet resources; Learning; Literacy; Management decisions; Minority & ethnic groups; Pedagogy; Problem solving; Research methodology; Science education; Scientists; Skills; Social sciences; STEM education; Students; Teaching; Training; undergraduate education; Undergraduate study; Workforce; World problems
• ISSN: 2045-7758; 2045-7758
• DOI: 10.1002/ece3.10001

Conducting ecological research in a way that addresses complex, real‐world problems requires a diverse, interdisciplinary and quantitatively trained ecology and environmental science workforce. This begins with equitably training students in ecology, interdisciplinary science, and quantitative skills at the undergraduate level. Understanding the current undergraduate curriculum landscape in ecology and environmental sciences allows for targeted interventions to improve equitable educational opportunities. Ecological forecasting is a sub‐discipline of ecology with roots in interdisciplinary and quantitative science. We use ecological forecasting to show how ecology and environmental science undergraduate curriculum could be evaluated and ultimately restructured to address the needs of the 21st century workforce. To characterize the current state of ecological forecasting education, we compiled existing resources for teaching and learning ecological forecasting at three curriculum levels: online resources; US university courses on ecological forecasting; and US university courses on topics related to ecological forecasting. We found persistent patterns (1) in what topics are taught to US undergraduate students at each of the curriculum levels; and (2) in the accessibility of resources, in terms of course availability at higher education institutions in the United States. We developed and implemented programs to increase the accessibility and comprehensiveness of ecological forecasting undergraduate education, including initiatives to engage specifically with Native American undergraduates and online resources for learning quantitative concepts at the undergraduate level. Such steps enhance the capacity of ecological forecasting to be more inclusive to undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds and expose more students to quantitative training. Ecological forecasting offers the ecology and environmental science community an opportunity to reflect on how to revise the existing undergraduate ecology curriculum to meet the needs of the 21st century. We capitalize on this opportunity by considering what educational resources exist and do not exist for teaching and learning ecological forecasting, as well as who has access to said resources. We present our methodology as an iterative process for curriculum revision that can be applied to the fields of ecology and environmental science more broadly.