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INVESTIGATOR: Stone, W.; Wang, Y.; Howell, H. B.; Stallsmith, B.

PERFORMING INSTITUTION:
ALABAMA A&M UNIVERSITY
4900 MERIDIAN STREET
NORMAL, ALABAMA 35762

STRENGTHENING THE EDUCATION PIPELINE FOR MINORITY WILDLIFE STUDENTS USING EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING, MENTORING, AND ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNI

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Minorities are severely underrepresented in aquatic and terrestrial wildlife biology fields. Recent demographic data collected by The Wildlife Society, the largest professional society of wildlife scientists and managers, reveal all minority groups compose less than 5% of the membership and that African-Americans compose less than one half of one percent (0.37%) of the membership, remaining the smallest ethnic group. The composition of members in the American Fisheries Society is similar (all ethnic minorities total 5.7% of the membership). Not surprisingly, only 2% of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's permanent workforce employees are African-American. There are many compelling reasons for the importance of cultural diversity in the fisheries and wildlife professions and workforce. The most important among these is that wildlife is owned in common by all of the citizens of the US. As a public resource, wildlife management must be responsive to our society's values and goals. Our US society is rapidly diversifying in ethnic composition. A scientific profession that fails to diversify will not survive, and the professional workforce that manages a public resource that fails to represent the values of society will likely become irrelevant in the decision-making process for that resource. Increasing cultural diversity in the wildlife profession and workforce will help ensure that decisions are representative of our society's desires for wildlife resources. Also, support for wildlife resources and management policies would extend from a broader political base if the profession and workforce are perceived by the public as representing their desires rather than catering to the wishes of a shrinking segment of our society. Issues affecting resources held in common, such as fish and wildlife, should be addressed by individuals representative of the general population. Minorities become, in effect, disenfranchised when they are not represented in the professional community that makes resource management decisions. Greater ethnic diversity would enhance the quality of wildlife management decisions because of the variety of knowledge and diverse perspectives available to resolve complex management issues. Multicultural groups invent more options and create a broader range of solutions than homogeneous groups. Cultural diversity is likely to be as important to survival of humanity as biodiversity is to survival of ecosystems. The public will be the ultimate beneficiary as fish and wildlife management decisions are made by a workforce that represents society's needs, wants and desires for its fish and wildlife resources.

OBJECTIVES: Goal: To increase the number of minority undergraduate students in wildlife pursuing graduate degrees Objectives: 1. Increase the number of undergraduate and graduate students in current fisheries minor and wildlife biology minor and fish and wildlife track of the Forestry bachelor's degree. 2. Enhance graduate research quality through research assistantships and teaching assistantships to fish and wildlife graduate students. 3. Improve quality of student learning by increasing experiential learning. 4. Enhance mentoring opportunities for students and professionals. 5. Strengthen current Fish and Wildlife curricula using student learning outcomes assessment. We expect to produce at least five presentations and a publication annually. Accomplishments will include enhanced (at least 10 students/class) enrollment in fish and wildlife courses at all program levels and increased transition (50% or more) of undergraduates into graduate schools. In addition, research productivity of graduate students and research experience of undergraduate students would be increased, and this would result in greater representation of minorities in research-focused STEM disciplines. Partnerships such as that currently with the Birmingham Sewer and Water Board will result in greater outreach and engagement (two events/year) of minority community stakeholders.

APPROACH: The proposed project will strengthen existing programs to train minority STEM scientists in fish and wildlife disciplines as well as in forestry, biology, and water resource disciplines by providing student participation support to minorities and providing a seamless transition to advanced training in STEM fields. The project will increase recruitment of students into the STEM fields by providing scholarships and assistantships. Additionally, it will formalize the mentoring relationship between graduate and undergraduate students as well as between students and professionals.We plan to: 1) offer internships, assistantships, and work/study opportunities for undergraduate students to assist fish and wildlife graduate students and professors on current and future research projects, 2) provide research assistantships and teaching assistantships to fish and wildlife graduate students, 3) provide opportunities for undergraduates to present research findings at regional and national scientific conferences, 4) update curricula with more hands-on exercises/experiences, and 5) assess student learning outcomes to improve student performance. Current students in Forestry, Biology and Environmental Sciences will be made aware of proposed internship and employment opportunities in their sophomore and junior courses. We will also reach these and other students through advertising on bulletin boards, through an announcement distributed electronically through the University Public Relations Dept. and through social media (Facebook site). Work/study student applicants must furnish a resume and current course schedule/transcript and will be selected following an interview with two or more project managers. Undergraduate interns will apply with the same application materials but must have at least a 2.8 (C+) grade point average. The interview for interns will be conducted with all project managers and appropriate graduate student assistants. Students will receive a stipend once they have registered for a fish or wildlife course(s). Continued participation in the intern program will be dependent on completion of fish or wildlife courses, continued enrollment in fish and wildlife courses and satisfactory performance on research project and data entry as determined by the project manager or mentor. We will seek graduate assistants from among our top graduating seniors and by advertising assistantship opportunities through Public Relations, at scientific meetings, and on electronic job boards (and/or listserves) such as the ones available at The Wildlife Society and American Fisheries Society websites. Graduate student applicants must be accepted by the AAMU School of Graduate Studies to participate on an assistantship. Research assistants will be assigned to one of the graduate faculty project managers to design and conduct their project, but also to receive training on mentoring undergraduate interns that will assist them in conducting research.

PROGRESS: 2012/09 TO 2015/08
Target Audience:Undergraduate and graduate students in fish and wildlife management disciplines. Professionals in Forestry, Wildlife, Fisheries and Water managing disciplines in USDA Agencies, especially the USDA Forest Service. Partnership with University of Alabama in Huntsville and Birmingham Waterworks and Sewer Board (Young Water Ambassadors) Changes/Problems:As mentioned previously under accomplishments, we had planned to entice students into fish and wildlife courses with tuition support, but University restructuring of tuition payments changed our ability to do this. However, the expansion of stipends for internships to students conducting fish and wildlife research projects allowed us to continue generating interest and particiaption in the academic program and the pursuit of formal fish and wildlife training in the respective concentrations within the Forestry major. Of course the incorporation of more hands-on exercises that could be done during the time allotted for a college class was challenging at first, but we were fortunate to use mearby natural areas and the campus itself to provide these opportunities to students. Eliminating traditional term papers and replacing them with written (and verbal) lab reports has been challenging for the students and for instructors to grade, but has yieleded the improvement in writing results we were looking for. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Because of this grant, students and I were able to present research results at several wildlife conferences. The students were able to participate in scientific sessions at these conferences and make professional contacts in their field. Some of these led to employment in Alabama, the southeast and as far away as Oregon and California. Also, the participating students completed undergraduate and graduate degrees during the project time period. Students also provided fish and wildlife public outreach and education at our annual Forestry Fair on campus, or in our labs, and at elementary and high schools in northern Alabama and Birmingham. For many this was an exercise in public speaking that built confidence in their own abilities to share the science and management principles they had learned as a result of this project. One particiapting student was also able to go to China during the summer on another grant, but shared the research conducted there with our students and a recent professional forestry conference. He is currently employed by the USDA Forest Service, but plans to matriculate in graduate school in future. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We presented research results at scientific conferences, but also shared the results of the experiental learning exercises in class at an education forum during the national conference of The Wildlife Society. Additionally, the principle investigator spoke at 2013 Diversity Summit held at Virginia Technical University regarding the growth ofour academic program resulting from this project and others that support minority students in ecological and agricultural disciplines. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

IMPACT: 2012/09 TO 2015/08
What was accomplished under these goals? We were able to increase the number of minority students in the fisheries and wildlife curriculum from 4 per year to 18 students that are formally taking the fish and wildlife concentration in our Forestry Major. Improved enrollment numbers resulting from the financial resources provided by this grant were partially responsible. We planned to offer tuition support to students, but then the Alabama A&M University changed its tuition and fee structure for undergraduates to a flat tuition rate for 12-19 hours. This took our incentive away for students to take our fish and wildlife courses as we planned, so we offered stipends for interns conducting fish and wildlife research projects instead. This boosted the interest and participationin our programfor courses as well. Then the University agreed to incorporate the Fisheries Minor and the Wildlife Biology minor completely within the Forestry major as a concentration so that students would not have to complete extra credit hours in the major in order to also take the specialized fish and wildlife curriculum. We used their elective hours to do this, but enrollment increased in many classes from 4-6 students to 15-21 students during the 2012-2015 period of the grant. Additionally, we were able to attract two new minority graduate students that mentored the undergraduates. They both completed their degrees (one Masters and one PhD) in 2016.Two staff membersparticipated in this mentoring process as well andboth recently initiated MS graduate degrees here at Alabama A&M.One continues to provide mentoring to undergraduate students that are conducting aquatic research projects. The other is a tremendous asset to our wildlife and forestry undergraduate students, as well as mentoring other graduate students in statistics and geo-spatial analysis. This mentoring grant provided the interest and motivation for both of these staff membersto matriculate in graduate school. Performance on student learning outcomes increased dramatically with more experiential learning opportunities, especially in the fisheries courses where the courses became more like labs than lectures. Writing skill performance increased by nearly 50% on the aquaculture design project in one course. Similar gains were made in some of the wildlife courses (increases in 19-36%) in writing and verbal communication skills. Two other wildlife courses had not been fully transformed during that period to incorporate more hands-on exercises that require written lab reports and the student learning outcomes on traditional term papers continued at previous performance values and even declined slightly in the Principles of Wildlife Managament course. So far, most students that have graduated have sought employment with natural resources agencies (eg., USDA Forest Service), but three have entered graduate school here and at another instituion to pursue MS degrees in Biology and related areas. Graduate students and undergraduate students made numerous presentations during the project time period. These are listed elsewhere, but these continue to be further refined and manuscripts for publication are being prepared. We continued to work with the Birmingham Water and sewer utility and their Young Water Ambassadors summer program. We have begun to see results in recruiting some of the students to AAMU in forestry, biology and environmental scince majors.

PUBLICATIONS (not previously reported): 2012/09 TO 2015/08
1. Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Stone, William E. 2013. Expansion of Natural Resources Academic Programs at a Historically Black College and University using the Interdisciplinary Nature of Ecology. Natural Resources Diversity Summit. Virginia technical University, Blacksburg, VA June 9-11 2013
2. Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Stone, William E. and David Morrill. 2014. Diet Composition of Wild Hogs using Stomach Contents Analysis in northern Alabama. International Wild Hog Conference, Montgomery AL. April 13-14, 2016
3. Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Knight, Patience, and William E. Stone. 2014. Habitat and Riparian Area Use by Feral Swine in Immediate Response to Prescribed Burning in the William B. Bankhead National Forest, Alabama. International Wild Hog Conference, Montgomery AL. April 13-14. 2014.
4. Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Stone, William E. 2013. Discovery of White Nose Syndrome in Alabama. Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Bat Diversity Network and Mammal Colloquium. Pike Ville TN. Feb. 20, 2013.
5. Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2012 Citation: Stone, William E. Lessons Learned from modifying a course-level outcomes assessment matrix in wildlife classes for application in an accredited forestry program. Invited presentation at University Education Symposium at the 75th Annual Meeting of The Wildlife Society. Portland OR. Fall 2012.
6. Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2012 Citation: Knight, Patience and W.E. Stone 2012. Population responses of small and medium sized mammals in streamside forest buffers to forest thinning and burning treatments conducted in upstream watersheds. Alabama Chapter of The Wildlife Society Meeting (Decatur, AL) and the 75th annual meeting of The Wildlife Society (Portland, OR).