Student-led field studies of herbivory: Hands-on experiences for remote (or in-person) learning

Abstract

Challenging students to independently design and implement experiments is a powerful way to teach the scientific method while engaging with STEM-related course material. For ecology and organismal biology, such experiences often take the form of field work. The COVID-19 pandemic presented formidable challenges for instructors of such courses: How can students conduct any experiments, much less ones of their own design, when they might not even have access to campus? Here we describe a student-led field project exploring invertebrate herbivory in terrestrial plant systems. Designed to flexibly accommodate student groups working either in-person, remotely, or both, the project would be suitable for invertebrate biology, plant biology, or general ecology courses at the college or high school level. We describe our implementation in two sections of a sophomore-level course, provide specific advice based on our experiences, make suggestions for future improvements or adaptations, and provide all the written materials that instructors would need to implement this in their own teaching.