The field and laboratory are places where problems are approached in real-time and where answers can be discovered, not just learned. Skills gained hands-on complement knowledge learned in the classroom to prepare students to solve problems and innovate. This is lately termed ‘experiential learning,’ and as long as we don’t ruin a great idea by overstructuring things, the future of teaching is going to be way more interactive than it is now. Working in a lab, for starters, students have the chance to design, implement and share projects in an interdisciplinary group and among the resource-rich scientific community at the University of Minnesota. Interested in working in the lab or on an undergraduate research opportunity program (UROP) project? Contact me.
Courses
PMB 3212/5212 Fungi: A Kingdom of Their Own (each Fall; 3 credits)
This course uses a format of lecture, discussion, and field trips to provide undergraduate and graduate students with a solid foundation in the fungi, primarily through an environmental lens. Undergraduate and graduate students will learn the basics of fungi in three core sections: 1) Phylogeny, taxonomy, and diagnostics (Who are the fungi?); 2) Morphology and physiology (How do fungi work?); 3) Ecology and Biotechnology (What are fungal implications and applications?). Within each core section, there will be one class period devoted to a discussion of the environment, the role of fungi, and the human dimensions of conservation and management. This discussion will be used by the class to vote for an environmental theme used to frame writing assignments, one per unit. Using this theme, all students will create a ‘Fungus in Focus’ one-page ‘brief’ focused on this environmental issue. This is a creative way to connect ‘dots’ for students linking microbial processes to environment, in our case harnessing connections to fungi that often have visible characters (e.g. mushrooms) that make those connections easier for students. We will also get outside to learn about fungi in their home habitat as well as conduct field isolations, all depending on class size and weather.
As a ‘dual-listed’ course, the expectations for graduate students will not be for more work – it will be for different work. Undergraduate students will be assigned to do an ‘Environment Theme’ paper and ‘lightning’ presentation on the human dimensions of bioremediation. Bioremediation is the process of using organisms, in our case fungi, to detoxify or otherwise remediate environmental contamination. This seems like a noble cause, but as the students will explore, there are human dimensions that create a dilemma – bioremediation offers a valuable route to decrease pollution but also a justification to industry to create more, not less pollution, with the assumption that clean-up is reliable. This is called the ‘band aid’ effect by some, and ‘enabling science’ by others. Students will explore organismal, environmental, industry, regulatory and citizen perspectives in framing a bioremediation case study. Graduate students will be assigned a paper/presentation project requiring deeper synthesis in fungal research. Specifically, graduate students will use a ‘Question Framing’ project to create a knowledge gap in the scientific literature using two contrasting studies in a similar system, and then fill the gap with a logical, feasible design. They will present a longer ‘thunder’ presentation to pitch their logic and design as if going in front of a funding panel. This assignment has proven a useful process for graduate students in their first coursework-heavy years to simplify the literature searching they are inevitably doing for their own research. The outcome is a straightforward, logic-based white paper pitch that can successfully facilitate students in design phase.
PMB 3812/5812 Field Mycology (each May term; 3 credits)
The fungal role in Earth’s most critical processes is, right now, coming into light. It is an exciting time to study Kingdom Fungi, and there is no better place study them than in the field and at a biome transition, which enhances diversity. We have a fine biome transition example in Minnesota at Itasca Biological Station & Laboratories, (coniferous, deciduous, prairie), where mycology courses are long a staple, beginning in 1911 with Drs. Arthur G. Ruggles and Edward M. Freeman, and through the years with Drs. Louise Dosdall, Clyde Christiansen, David French, and Bob Gilbertson, among others.
This course uses the Itasca Station capacities, including modern laboratory and classroom facilities to match the excellent access to diverse field sites in coniferous, deciduous and prairie biomes. This, along with vans and instructional support, enables the course to offer the best of both field collecting and laboratory-based inquiry.
What to expect at Itasca Station: Lodging, dining, and coursework all bases from this field station, approximately 35 minutes driving from Park Rapids in a rustic wilderness setting inside Itasca State Park. The station is on the lake, and there are bicycles, boats, paddleboards, games, a library, and reliable wifi (cell service is unreliable for some providers). Bears, bugs, and poison ivy are present, as are mushrooms, and you may want to bring rubber boots (‘gum’ or ‘wellington’ boots), field pants, and a long-sleeve quick dry shirt. The Station has extra boots, in case you don’t have access to your own, and we also have ‘guides’ who volunteer to help you onboard into wilderness and settle in to a program-active living learning community (LLC) at Itasca.
The course is 3 weeks long, in May-June, scheduled for afternoons, with a 3 hour and 50 minute time slot divided by one short break. There is also a ‘long Thursday’ session from 8 am – 5 pm, to enable longer outings. Students can pair this course with Itasca course offerings in the mornings, without over-taxing time commitments, although 6 credits in 3 weeks requires organization. There are also optional after-dinner or off-day excursions. Those will be less formal, and may tap into other courses and opportunities that may happen later in the day (e.g. white nose syndrome with bat netting, morel cooking, etc.).
Undergraduate and graduate students will learn the basics of fungi and field mycology in two core thematic sections: 1) Who are the fungi, & how do they work?, and 2) Where do we find the fungi, & what are their roles?. Each section covers 6 days of intensive coursework and hands-on time, and the aim is to understand the character of fungi and to enable students’ abilities to associate habitat with certain species, improving their foray skills in the field. Students will gain many coordinated materials with the purpose of maximizing synergy between field and lab. We want you to learn, but we also want it to resonate. Why learn if you never have to or want to use the information? Itasca will resonate! It has done that for over 115 years.