NorthWoods and LSC partner on Salamander Study

On a recent snowy afternoon, fifteen students from Alan Giese’s Wildlife Biology and Management class at Lyndon State College arrived at the NorthWoodsStewardship Center in East Charleston, Vermont. After quickly setting up their posters along one wall of the Center’s main hall, they began presenting the results of their projects to NorthWoods’ staff, board members, and guests. The afternoon session represented the culmination of a semester-long, one-of-a-kind partnership, in which the NorthWoods Stewardship Center and Lyndon State College partnered to use a study of forest salamanders to teach students about scientific research.

As Alan Giese noted, there are at least three main beneficiaries of this educational partnership. First, NorthWoods benefits from the help students provide with the cover board surveys and analyses of the data. Second, Lyndon State College students benefit through the participate in actual, on-the-ground scientific research projects and by using data to develop and answer their own scientific questions. And third, the broader biology community of teachers and students benefits from the development of a new model of science education. Both NorthWoods and Lyndon State look forward to identifying and developing additional opportunities to institute this model of teaching and learning about the natural sciences and the forests in which we live.