There and Back Again: Fostering Undergraduate Research in Insect Biology Within a Study-Abroad Framework

Abstract

Liberal arts colleges often afford a unique teaching and learning environment where pedagogical innovation is not only embraced by the academic community, but typically incentivized, nurtured, and celebrated. Undergraduate students often choose a liberal arts college over other academic models due to the small average class sizes, the opportunity to enroll in interdisciplinary courses, support for pursuing multiple unrelated majors, participation in extracurricular organizations, opportunities for involvement in research, and participation in study-abroad programming. As an entomologist or insect biologist interested in a rewarding teaching career, and considering a position at a liberal arts college, you might expect to become involved in many, if not all, of the above at one point or another during your tenure. Of special interest to those of us fascinated with the amazing biology of insects, however, is the opportunity to develop and teach entomological or insect-biology-themed study-abroad courses. Student participation in study-abroad programming has increased in past decades (Carlson 1990), and is nearly ubiquitous at liberal arts colleges, where close to 50% of all undergraduates enroll in some form of study-abroad course. Nearly half of these experiences occur in short-term study-abroad settings (less than a semester; Donnelly-Smith 2009), a course duration especially conducive to the integration of project-based or course-based research projects in entomology, and more logistically tractable for most faculty. For an entomologist balancing the liberal arts college demands of a heavy teaching load with the desire to maintain a research agenda, a study-abroad course to an international field study site may provide the platform for integration of both. Moreover, students that choose to enroll in the course may represent a distinctive demography from that likely to enroll in a traditional …