Video Clip - Forest Data Analysis with EnEd 550 class

This is a video clip of a graduate class learning to do an analysis of forest species and DBH data. One student is running the analysis on the computer and we work through it together as a class.



Reflections on my teaching in the Video Clip: Viewing this clip was extremely helpful for analyzing my teaching. I would like to video many other parts of my teaching because this is such a small sample. Maybe I will try and video a few lectures and discussions. My first thought (and you can catch a comment about this at the beginning of the clip) was that this was not a good lesson to be video taping but it was the only class I would have a chance to take the video on so I went ahead with it. In retrospect, I am glad that I did. This allowed me to evaluate the kind of interactions I have with students in this type of exercise. I was glad to see that I was asking questions that asked them to evaluate what we were doing and why. I have been wondering if there would be a way to do this kind of exercise with it being more student directed. It might be possible to have them research how to do forest dynamics data analysis on their own first, but in a survey class like this I feel I just don't have time for that kind of process.

One thing I liked about this class activity is that it addressed multiple learning objectives. They were learning how to better use Excel, how to manipulate a dataset, and how to take tree diameter data and find meaningful conclusions about the forest. Previously I had been out in the field with these students and we had learned how to collect forest data and they had collected a dataset for their own analysis. They had also read a published article that used these methods for a scientific study and one of the students had lead the class in discussing and critiquing the article. The further assignment for these students was to create an inquiry based lesson plan for a specific age group and audience (their choice) that had the students gathering tree diameter data and using these indices.

I believe that although this exercise was fairly controlled, the entire learning experience did ask students to use higher level reasoning and was a good learning experience given the time constraints of the class.