Ecology: Forecasts & Decisions in R Shiny
Ecology is a third-year lecture/laboratory undergraduate course of ~250 students at a public R1 state university. Key learning outcomes of the laboratory curriculum include communicating scientific knowledge in writing, designing and implementing ecological studies and data analyses, and conducting collaborative team science, with an emphasis on inquiry-based learning. The instructor taughtUsing Ecological Forecasts to Guide Decision Making in the R Shiny interface to introduce students to the emerging field of ecological forecasting, as well as encourage them to consider connections between sociological and ecological systems, such as how communication of forecasts can affect resource management and therefore water quality. For this course, the module was taught across 11 lab sections of ~24 students each by a team of teaching assistants in a single, 3-hour laboratory period.