Recipient Organization
ALABAMA A&M UNIVERSITY
4900 MERIDIAN STREET
NORMAL,AL 35762
Performing Department
Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences
Non Technical Summary
African Americans are extremely underrepresented in the Fish and Wildlife management agencies and professional societies that manage these public resources for the benefit of all members of our society. Education programs that recruit and train professionally qualified fish and wildlife biologists are required before workforce diversity can be increased. The purpose of this project is to develop courses in fisheries, wildlife and aquatic biology to offer a minor in fisheries that would meet federal standards for fish biologists where minorities are underrepresented and provide experiential learning to forestry and biology majors using undergraduate research projects.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
(1.) Creation of a Fisheries Biology minor and further development of the minor in Wildlife Biology at AAMU to enhance the quality of education in forestry, wildlife, environmental sciences, natural resources and agriculture. (2.) Diversify the human resources in USDA agencies and in the wildlife profession to better represent societys goals for wildlife resources and provide new perspectives on management strategies. (3.) Provide students with an ecological understanding that comes from studying animal natural history and ecology in the classroom with actual specimens and in the field with hands-on learning. (4.) Provide opportunities for students to learn and use field data collection techniques that rely on modern technology including GPS/GIS techniques, ultrasonic detection of bats, radio telemetry, and home range analysis. Ability to use these tools is very important for our students seeking employment in natural resources after graduation. (5.) Provide research
opportunities, and studies of the permanent record of our native fauna. (6.) Promote liaisons between AAMU, state and federal agencies, and industry. This would enhance our ability to teach vertebrate and natural history with an emphasis on applications for solving wildlife-human conflicts. Additionally, these collaborations would provide contacts for our students as they pursue their career goals. (7.) Enhance our ability to provide outreach service to the community. The materials and tools provided by this grant would be used to demonstrate natural history and wildlife management principles to the public. This service would interest the public in natural resource issues and provide recruitment for new students. (8.) Promote student involvement in professional societies and meetings.
Project Methods
We propose to develop two courses in Principles of Fishery Science and Fisheries Management and Aquaculture to supplement courses currently offered by the AAMU Biology Department to complete University requirements for a minor in Fisheries Biology. The additional six-credit hours of aquatic wildlife subjects would allow graduates in Biology, Forestry, and other biological disciplines to meet the federal X-118 standards for the Fishery Biologist series positions (GS-482). Additionally, this project will enhance our capacity to teach a new Wildlife Techniques graduate and undergraduate course that the University has recently approved (Spring 2006) following approval of the Wildlife Biology minor in 2005. To attract outstanding students to the fish biology and wildlife biology minors, we propose offering 8 scholarships of $2,500 each to minority students with a high school GPA of 3.0 or higher and an expressed interest in fish and wildlife management. Additionally, the
proposed program would fund competitive work-study positions during the academic school year to five undergraduate students. Qualifications for work-study positions would include: 1) a 3.0 GPA or above in high school and/or maintenance of a 2.8 GPA in college, 2) minority status, and 3) financial need and/or interest in fish and wildlife science. Student work/study projects will include: training in taxidermy/preservation of aquatic and terrestrial animal specimens, capturing of animals, and assisting wildlife faculty with current research projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation (CREST program) that involve the determination of impacts of forest practices on wildlife abundance, composition, and diversity. An example of such a research project is an investigation of forest thinning and prescribed burning on amphibian, aquatic invertebrates, avian, fish mammalian, and reptilian communities on the Bankhead National Forest. Ultimately, the most important products to be
produced from this project are fish and wildlife professionals (and other natural resource professionals) that are competent in wildlife habitat management. Information generated by students conducting course assignments and work/study projects that assist research investigations will also be a tangible result of the proposed program that can be measured by the number of presentations and publications of students and faculty. The community and other departments at AAMU would also benefit from this grant. Collaboration with biology and science education at AAMU would enhance natural resource education for all AAMU students. The animal specimens and student research projects will also be used to demonstrate ecological principles to the general public. The specimens housed for teaching would also be available for scientists at different institutions.