Integrative Biology Takes Remote Learning Outside

Integrative Biology at the Fall 2020 Technology Innovation Forum

FTIF20-07 Integrative Biology (2020 UC Berkeley Fall Technology Innovation Forum)

FY20 Awardee Profile: Integrative Biology Takes Remote Learning Outside

Awardees:

  • Tamara Mau, Lab Instruction Manager, Department of Integrative Biology
  • Paul Fine, Professor, Department of Integrative Biology
  • Michael Nachman, Professor, Department of Integrative Biology

The Department of Integrative Biology depends on students being able to participate in immersive, hands-on lab field classes in natural history. The department is known for taking field trips to natural spaces from vast vistas to tiny ecosystems, where students identify species, and the flora and fauna of California’s rich natural world. Field courses embrace kinesthetic learning -- touch, and visual and auditory cues that promote connected learning. The grant funds the development of rich content that students can access from home. Students will learn how to become citizen scientists wherever they are residing. They might set up wildlife cameras, or record changing growing seasons or migration patterns. They will be able to  collaborate online, and use available tools they can download to their phone. The team will integrate available apps such as iNaturalist, and will also train students to make tools out of household objects, like a quadrat out of a coat hanger, for instance.