NRES/BSEN 468/868: Wetlands

Wetlands (468/868) is a multidisciplinary 4 hr fourth year/graduate level course that includes two 90 min lectures and a weekly 3 hr laboratory. The course is crosslisted in the School of Natural Resources and Biological Systems Engineering Department. The course is typically comprised of 20-30 students with approximately 30% engineering students and 70% natural resources students in the majors of biological systems engineering, water science, fisheries and wildlife, and environmental restoration science. Majority of the students that participate in this course intend to have careers in consulting, government, and/or the nonprofit conservation sectors. Each of these sectors require knowledge of various ecological systems for conservation, restoration, and design. Therefore, NRES/BSEN 468/868 provides a foundation for the students in this one ecosystem. The overall course goal is to train students to be able to identify, preserve, and design wetlands based on the Army Corp of Engineering wetland delineation manual. One of the major challenges in teaching this course is developing a cohesive educational environment for students in various disciplines. More specifically, in past years creating an environment where joint respect and openness between students from various disciplines has been challenging. Therefore, my Peer Review of Teaching project focused on developing and assessing innovative team projects to build synergy for interdisciplinary designs