Experts Provide Specialized Training in Wildlife Field Skills to Students
The 2010 Students on Bird Mountain for a Habitat Study
How does one get experience without a job, but a job without experience? It is a riddle that has plagued students since the first textbook was issued.
The Wildlife Society and Castleton State College have created an intense two week, 3-credit shortcourse that goes a long way to addressing this issue.
Billed as the Wildlife Field Course , the course seeks increase the amount of field based learning for wildlife and natural resources students. Experts from West Virginia to Vermont provided their expertise, pro-bono, to in intentionally small group of seventeen students. Sessions include traditional and hard to find skills such as: Chemical Imobilization, Radiotelemetry, Habitat Analysis, Bird Sampling, Plant ID, Herpetology/ Aquatic Systems and Hunter Education.
A unique feature of the course is Discussion. After dinner is a final meeting for the night. The students gather together in a casual environment (usually with a cup of tea to ward off the day’s chill) and have a discussion with the instructor. There is no preset format, nor length of time for the Discussion. Everything is determined by student interest, questions and casual conversation. All topics are allowed and the structure (as much as there is one) has shown to be a safe place for students to ask all sorts of questions they might not otherwise ask. In addition, students provide resources, support and expertise to each other during Discussions.
The last discussion ran for four hours and included “modern” topics such as: pros/cons of social media, personal marketing and branding, networking, interviewing, harassment, niche creation, resumes and blogging. An unexpected, yet pleasant part of the Discussion was that while students learned they faced similar experiences and frustrations (especially with internships), they were surprised to find that they could provide solutions to each other’s difficulties.
In true fashion, a Facebook Page was created for this course. Feel free to look at it and the photo album of student “action shots”.
Those interested in finding out more or for registering for the 2011 course may contact:
John E. McDonald, Jr., Ph.D
Northeast Section TWS
Wildlife Research Specialist
Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program
US Fish & Wildlife Service–Region 5
300 Westgate Center Drive
Hadley, MA 01035
Tel: 413-253-8675
FAX: 413-253-8487
Email: john_e_mcdonald@fws.gov
