Field Skills in Ecology
- Survey and identify local plants, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals
- Collect and measure ecological data using pitfall traps, mist nets, visual counts, sweep nets, and other techniques
- Practice field monitoring techniques, including radio telemetry, camera traps, acoustic monitoring, and electrofishing
- Organize, analyze, and synthesize ecological data collected during the course
- Work all the way from a study idea to ready-for-implementation by completing your own research proposal
- Learn orienteering basics such as navigating with a compass, using GPS, and finding map and field bearings
*Equivalent to BIOL 357 or EVPP 440. Fulfills laboratory requirements.
- Dates
May 18 – May 30, 2025 (about 2 weeks) | Mason’s academic calendar
- Available Formats
Undergraduate (CONS 440, 4 credits)
Graduate (CONS 540, 4 credits)- Cost
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Mandatory Room and Board – All students participating in this course will be required to stay onsite. Costs per day to be determined, estimated at $90-110 (housing and meals).
Room and board fees will be posted on student accounts.
- Who is eligible?
3rd- and 4th-year undergraduates, graduate students, and non-degree-seeking students from any accredited college or university
Meet the Faculty
Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation
Curriculum
This intensive course packs four credits worth of ecological field experience into a two-week period. We’ll begin with an overview of sampling methods and progress into hands-on and remote techniques commonly used in ecological research. You’ll become familiar with Virginia’s flora and fauna and learn to characterize ecological interactions related to population ecology, community ecology, and behavioral ecology.
You’ll conduct lab work on ecological data, maintain a field journal for your observations during the course, and develop a research proposal that addresses a question in conservation ecology.
Learning in the Field
Hands-on learning can happen any time of day (or night). Students took an evening walk to gauge diversity of night-flying insects. Assistant Professor Jim McNeil, an entomologist, demonstrated light-trap sampling techniques on a captured click beetle, which makes a clicking sound as a defense mechanism.
