Black Rock Forest
General Methadology for Instructors and TAs

Exercise 1: Global Biomes and Introduction to Recent Technology
Module 1: Introduction to Global Biomes

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  1. During the morning lecture, instructor expands on the biological basis of local and global biome variability, focusing heavily on regional and global biodiversity.
    • Review the findings of the previous days and place them in the greater context of the diversity of both EDF and other biomes. If possible, incorporate data from other SEE-U programs, as well as published measures of biodiversity in other biomes. If time permits, discuss non-species based measures of diversity (e.g. community or landscape diversity)
    • Discuss the independent research projects that they will have to do this semester. Bring up some potential projects.
  2. Activity A: Introduction to GPS
    • Students are shown how to use handheld GPS units. A brief orienteering session is held to acquaint students with navigating with maps and GPS units.
    • Students meet with Dr. Gompper for a brief overview of radiotelemetry and raccoon ecology at BRF.
    • Students assist Dr. Gompper in locating raccoon dens using radiotelemetry, and in gaining a GPS locality of the den for later GIS work. Students are asked to hypothesize about ideal raccoon denning habitat.
  3. Activity B: Introduction to GIS
    • Students are introduced to GIS theory, the software program ArcView, and ArcView maps of BRF
    • Students enter GPS localities into ArcView format, for overlay on BRF maps and data analysis.
  4. Review hypothesis testing, using the following example
    • Hypotheses to test
      • Raccoons prefer a particular habitat for denning.
    • Independent variables in the experiment
      • Activity B: habitat type (e.g. slope, proximity to water, dominant tree species in area)
    • Dependent variables that they could use in their experimental design:
      • Activity B: den locality
  5. Students will be evaluated by having them write up two short lab reports in large groups.
    • Report 1 will be no longer than 3 pages and should include analyses of the global measures of biodiversity as a function of biome diversity. Report 2 will be no longer than 3 pages and should include analyses of raccoon habitat use.