While Kroll's advice was aimed primarily at graduate programs, it should be true for an science education program aimed at creating the natural resource professionals of the future, both inside and outside academe. Science education that simply provides "content" to the students should start getting formal audits from teams of professional scientists, and the results of the audits should be presented far and wide. Many of us who work with science professionals already know that there is an informal word of mouth reputation of various programs' graduates; I am suggesting we formalize this. The students will then be better served by their education--becoming both knowledgeable and employable.I used to direct a wildlife management area north of Dallas, TX, and I often hired interns from the local colleges and universities. I found out quickly that the "farm kids" did better than the academic ones, even the graduate biology students. Too many students had plenty of "book learnin'" but not much skill or experience, and it took a considerable amount of time to get them comfortable applying their knowledge. Too many natural resource science professors have no real experience in the field, and pass that inexperience on to their students. It is past time that stopped--we can't keep teaching the way we were (sometimes poorly) taught if we are to remain relevant, in both education and in professional science. (No doubt I'll have to riff on that further in another post. Stay tuned.)
That being said, I know many (too many!) professional scientists who have no real idea how to use statistical analysis or mathematical models correctly. (To wit: a wonderful commentary in Psychological Science titled Editors can lead researchers to confidence intervals, but can't make them think: statistical reform lessons from medicine came out a couple of years back, with the same authors pointing out the same issues--albeit with a less-controversial title--inherent in conservation science a couple of years later in Conservation Biology.)
Really, we need both knowledge and skills to be effective professionals; too much of either leaves one stunted.
I'm happy to say I've been part of an effort to systematically integrate skills and knowledge throughout the undergraduate life sciences at Peninsula College and Western Washington University's Huxley-Peninsula program. Among other things, we host a Research Experiences for Undergraduates program (thank you, National Science Foundation!) that allows our students to work on the world's largest dam removal and fisheries restoration project, the Elwha Ecosystem Restoration Project.
This blog will detail some of the experiences of our program's efforts to provide a real educational experience for our students, as well as my various rants, raves, and commentary on science in this crazy country (which I happen to love dearly, in spite of its recent widely-seen separation with reality) and around the world...
You can also see what the students themselves think: www.protopage.com/elwhareu will keep an rss-feed compilation of all of their blogs--enjoy!
