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Tracy Gartner and team earn NSF grant

July 13, 2010

Professor Tracy Gartner, left, director of the Environmental Science Program at Carthage, works with students studying invasive species for a Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) project. Prof. Gartner is co-author of a $494,980 grant from the National Science Foundation to create a network for ecological research among 12 schools.

New Ecological Research as Education Network will develop collaborative research projects among 12 schools

Carthage is one of 12 schools that will share a National Science Foundation grant to establish an ecological research and education network among primarily undergraduate institutions. The EREN (Ecological Research as Education Network) will develop collaborative research projects on regional- to continental-scale ecological issues, engage students in authentic science while teaching them basic ecology, create a continental-scale ecology course module using research data that will be team-taught by scientist-educators from participating institutions, and establish an online database of collaborative data sets collected during the project.

"We're really excited about this opportunity," says Tracy Gartner, director of the Environmental Science Program and assistant professor of biology, geography and earth science.

Students in the Environmental Science Program conduct field research in Carthage's wildlife sanctuary.

"(EREN) will link our research here to other schools. Rather than give our students a 'canned lab' where we might already know the answer. It's much more valuable to have them grappling with real questions, to understand that science isn't always neat and tidy."

Carthage is the only Wisconsin member of the network. Prof. Gartner is a co-author on the $494,980 grant, and will serve on the leadership working group. Laurel Anderson, associate professor of botany-microbiology at Ohio Wesleyan University, is the network coordinator and will chair the leadership working group.

EREN also will include faculty members from Mount St. Mary's University, Md.; Mount Holyoke College, Mass.; St. Olaf College, Minn; Bard and Union Colleges, N.Y.; Meredith College, N. C.; Elizabethtown and Swarthmore Colleges, Pa.; Sewanee: The University of the South, Tenn.; and Ferrum College, Va.

"These schools are all similar to Carthage," Prof. Gartner says. "They are all student-oriented and faculty at these institutions balance equally important roles as educators and researchers."

Prof. Gartner says EREN will provide new opportunities for Carthage students.

"One of our long-term goals is for students to interact with faculty at other schools during projects," she says. "This will link our research here to other schools. Rather than give our students a 'canned lab' where we might already know the answer, that might teach technique; it's much more valuable to have them grappling with real questions, to understand that science isn't always neat and tidy with a single answer."

The EREN project began in March 2009 when Anderson received a NSF workshop grant, which funded meetings to bring scientists from primarily undergraduate institutions together to brainstorm. The new award provides full funding for the project for five years. The EREN group met in June at Sewanee to develop a project to study carbon accumulation in trees and to establish administrative aspects of the network.

Two other projects planned are studies of how urbanization affects ecological processes, and a comparison of decomposition rates of invasive plants across aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Prof. Gartner will serve as lead scientist for the latter project.

During past two decades, Prof. Gartner points out, science departments at primarily undergraduate institutions have put increased emphasis on research, in the belief that enhanced research projects boosts students' learning and preparation for graduate studies. Greater collaboration among primarily undergraduate institutions can bring together research projects to make a more meaningful scientific contribution, she adds.

Prof. Gartner says she hopes EREN projects will help students "understand and appreciate the diverse nature of science." She plans to use the Carthage arboretum, along with other local nature preserves, during the research, which will allow the group to monitor what is happening to natural areas in Kenosha compared to other sites around the country.

EREN also will encourage scientists at primarily undergraduate institutions to participate in existing research networks, such as the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON).

The National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency created to promote the progress of science. With an annual budget of about $6.9 billion, the NSF provides funding for approximately 20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by America's colleges and universities.

— Bill Kurtz, Carthage College

 

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